Anything But Ordinary
by StarscreamII
Summary: A reckless femme meets Starscream in a bar. The universe decides to teach her a little lesson, and she walks out of the bar with more than she came in with, not that she wants it, or knows how to care for it. Little does she know that this sparkling is much more important than she ever expected. (Serves as a prequel to a current story-in-development.)
1. Unexpected

**A/N: **This could either be awesome or it could totally fail. I've had this account for…about a year, but have never gotten the nerve to post anything. (Until now.) I've been reading and reviewing and writing and freaking out about publishing. And now I'm publishing. It's…a little scary, to be honest.

Before I succeed in making myself not post this, I will give my acknowledgements: a TON of stuff goes to **Hearts of Eternity**. She is amazing. If you have not read her stories, you must. Before or after reading this, I don't care, but read them all the same. A few of her ideas that are used/mentioned within this story are: what happened to Megatron (**Even Angels Fall**), Skywarp's status as a reprogrammed ex-terrorist (**Surface of the Sun**), and a bunch of little cultural details (specifically, go read her stories). They're not really anything huge, but they add a lot of realism to the universe.  
>Also, I would like to give prolific thanks to <strong>Litahatchee<strong>, author of **Nightfire** and a couple other Chromia/Ironhide fics. Her ideas are amazing as well. I suggest you read her stories too. I would like to thank her for the confidence, inspiration, and confirmation on a few things.  
>Thanks to my sister, penname <strong>Farky-Fark and the Munky Bunch<strong> for her (almost) constant support.  
>Last but not least, I'd like to thank my dad, who showed me the 2007 movie and created a crazy fan out of me. ;P Thanks, Dad.<p>

**Disclaimer: **And, obviously, credit goes to the makers of Transformers; Hasbro, Dreamworks and every other franchise they've ever been a part of. Without those guys, this wouldn't be here.  
><strong>OC's that are mine:<strong> Fury, Lifeline, Raindance.

So! With acknowledgements given and without further ado…let the story begin! Read, review, and enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong><span>Unexpected:<span>**

She'd had that job for _vorns._ She was the best at it, so why the frag was she the first one to get laid off? She slammed her now-empty cube of high grade down on the bar. Oh well. Things could be worse. She could have a sparkling to take care of. Thankfully she was single. She could get drunk tonight, get laid _on_, leave, and wake up the next orn with nothing but a hangover and a drinking debt. And maybe some ITVs. She crossed her arms on the bar and buried her head in them.

"You look like you need another drink, Fury."

"I really don't, but go ahead and fill it up again anyway."

"What's the matter with you?" the bartender asked as she filled up the cube.

"Lost my damn job," Fury growled.

"Seems to be the problem lately. I thought you were good at yours." The light clink of the cube on the bar made Fury raise her head.

"I thought so too." She grabbed the cube and swallowed half of it.

"Well, look at the bright side. You could have a sparkling to support."

"My thoughts exactly. Right now, it's just me. And tonight I'm getting drunk and getting laid." She gulped the rest of the high grade. "Know any desperate mechs I could hook up with?"

"All the mechs who come in here are pretty desperate, to a degree. I'd bet you could get anyone to take you tonight. Just make sure your firewalls are up to date. There are hundreds of ITVs being transmitted around here."

"Just got them upgraded. On my second-to-last paycheck…"

"Then you should be fine. Sit here and look miserable and you should get picked up in no time. Some rooms should be available upstairs. Talk to one of the pleasure bots. I'm sure they'll lend you a berth for a few joors."

"Don't need to _pretend_ to look miserable", Fury growled, scanning the bar. It was dark; coupling had already started. Several pairs of bots had started hooking up in unlit corners. A few mechs were passed out at tables, still clutching their cubes. Someone was purging somewhere out of sight. The door opened, letting in a draft of cold air and wind, as well as a tall, thin, handsome Seeker.

"Starscream," the bar-femme whispered. "You could have a good time with him only if you're willing to hear him squawking in your audio the entire time you're making love."

Fury shrugged. "How bad can a voice be coming from a mech that beautiful?"

The bartender snorted as the jet made his way over to the bar. "You're about to find out." She turned to Starscream. "What can I get you, Screamer?"

The mech tossed his head and sniffed. "High grade with arsenic."

Fury winced. 'Squawking' was definitely the verb to use. His voice was high-pitched and screechy. No wonder people called him Screamer. But he was still gorgeous. Maybe if she turned off her audios and just let him…

The bartender handed Starscream his drink as the mech perched on one of the stools.

Fury inspected him quietly. He really was attractive. Mainly silver with red and white accents, thin wings that angled above his shoulders, long legs and arms, thin claws meant for some sort of precision work. Work. Fury didn't want to think about it. Or her current lack of it.

"What are you doing all the way out here?" the bar-femme was asking.

"I needed to get out of the lab. Skywarp was bothering the slag out of me."

His voice wasn't _too _bad, when she didn't focus on it and listened to what he was saying. He seemed a little arrogant, but that didn't matter. Arrogant mechs liked interface as much as the humble ones. And it wasn't like she'd ever see him again after this one night.

"…scribe. That's basically all the little fragger's good for. That and a test subject. Jetfire doesn't like using him to experiment on, but he's better than someone who can actually think coherently." The Seeker huffed and took a swig of his high grade. "Being a test subject is better than being a terrorist."

So he was a scientist… Fury tapped her cube on the bar to signal for another refill.

The bartender glanced over and nodded. "You're building up a debt, femme." But she took the cube and refilled it anyway.

While the drink was nice, it wasn't her goal. She'd gotten Starscream's attention. He glanced over at her and gave her a head-to-toe appraisal. She must have met expectations, because he moved closer.

Fury received her cube and pretended not to notice the mech closing in on her. She stared down into the glowing liquid and tried to keep her internal temperature from rising too much. When he didn't talk, he was arousing. But as soon as he opened his mouth…there went the mood. She looked up and raised an optic ridge at how close he was. "Hey," she said quietly. "You're Starscream, right? The scientist that works out in Iacon? What are you doing here? You must have something important to be working on…"

The jet puffed out his chest. "Yes, my research is very important, but I'm taking a break. Didn't you hear?"

"No. Sorry. I was…thinking about…other things…" she gazed back into her cube with what she hoped was a mournful expression. "But you don't want to hear about my problems."

"Maybe you'd like me to tell you about my research? To take your mind off your troubles?"

She really didn't, she just wanted some hot, frantic interface, but since the mech liked to talk about himself, she'd let him talk. He'd be inside her soon enough. So she nodded.

"Well, what I'm currently working on…"

She tuned him out. She didn't care. Maybe if she still had a job, she'd be more interested. She just let him keep talking, and keep buying drinks for both of them. She was finally being affected by the high grade. Noises seemed louder, blurred, lights melded. There were more people now, or maybe she was just seeing double. She lost sense of time, but joors had probably passed.

Several drinks later, Starscream sighed. The noise was much softer than the harsh nonstop chattering he'd been doing, so it caught her attention.

"It's getting loud," the mech muttered.

"Well…we could go upstairs where it's more…private…" she was so drunk off her aft that she couldn't hear how slurred her speech was. But she knew she was acting blindly intoxicated (which she was), so Screamer would think he was going to get lucky (which he was) by taking advantage of her. But she wanted it as much as he did. She knew how promiscuous the Seekers were. And it had been a while since she'd interfaced. For pleasure or otherwise. She was drunk, she was tired, and she wanted to be screwed, for frag's sake.

"Oh," the scientist murmured as if he were surprised. But even as inebriated as she was, Fury saw the tiny smirk that accompanied his words. "If you want to…" he reached out around her hips with one arm, comfortably close to her interface panel.

She stood and the room spun, forcing her to lean against Starscream before she fell. He led her through the room to the stairwell, guided her up the stairs (with mild difficulty) and showed her to a dimly-lit, tapestried room, decorated in deep reds, dark violets, and rich golden-yellows. There was nothing in it in the way of furniture except a double berth covered in polymer cushioning.

In Fury's drunken gaze, it was just a swirl of color with glittering lights here and there. And the berth was a welcome sight. Starscream's claws trailed against her hips as she made her way to the berth, weaving slightly.

As she sat down, he remained standing, taking her in with an expression entirely different to the one he'd been sporting downstairs. This one was hungry. No, more like ravenous. And as much as Fury wanted to be taken, she was slightly frightened by this single-minded size-up. _Primus, he'll knock me onto my back in astroseconds. He's about to jump all over me…I wonder how much he gets back in Iacon?_

Obviously, not enough. Or Fury was one of the more attractive femmes he'd been with. Or…one of the only femmes. He seemed so much…bigger from this angle. Which was, in fact, flat on her back with him on top of her. Yeah, he was taller. Maybe it was her high-grade flooded processor—she squirmed. She wanted at least a little control…no. That wasn't going to happen. She was pinned down, in a very vulnerable position, and too drunk to fight. This was not what she'd wanted. She wanted interface. She didn't want to be raped. "Starscream…" Her voice didn't come out the way she'd intended it to. It sounded too much like a lusty plea. Well, it was a plea. A plea for him to get off of her. Not a plea for more. Unfortunately, she got the latter.

His claws were digging in between the breaks in her armor, sensitizing neural wires, which in turn made her interfacing panel heat up. He certainly knew what to do without really doing anything. Maybe…it was just this once. Just this one night…When the light of orn came around, she would be done with him, she would probably never see him again…what the Pit. She'd let him do whatever he wanted to her. A couple good joors with a sexy Seeker… She ran her hands up his long, thin arms, around to his back, to those gorgeous wings. Tension wires quivered under her fingers. She drew her index finger across them, grinning as he moaned and dipped into her to get away from her hands. Their chests touched and she pushed him down. He wasn't going to be kneeling over her this entire time. No, he was going to be _on_ her. Frame to frame contact. It was so much better that way. Armor locking together, heat, sparkbeats under all those plates of metal… She continued playing with the wires. Every moan or yelp he gave was increasingly hotter. He was the one writhing now. She had some control. She never let those tension wires out of her grasp, but she did start sliding her fingers up and down his back to make him move. She wanted him to move. She needed some friction.

Breems passed and their bodies settled into a steady rhythm; back and forth, back and forth. Breath huffed out of vents at regular intervals. Interfacing panels overheated to the point of distracting them from their feverish foreplay. Starscream didn't hesitate and his panel clicked open, suddenly looking very inviting to the femme. She only waited a fraction of an astrosecond before opening her own panel and pulling his cable out. He grabbed hers and slipped it into his port just as she was shoving the needle-like point of his cable into hers. It took longer than either of them had expected for their systems to synchronize, but once they did, they were back at it just as fervently as they had been before connecting.

His mind was organized, but all that order was shoved aside to make way for the passion that was now front and center. Fury's own processor was a maelstrom of anger, frustration, lust, and desperation. Through the interface connection, they sank deeper into each other, losing track of time, not even noticing the noises they were making. Fury lost the use of any of her senses besides touch, and what she felt…was amazing. Thin claws across sensory wires, warm breath against her frame, sleek silver armor sliding back and forth on top of her, surprisingly delicate mouthplates brushing against her neck. She completely forgot who this was and what his voice sounded like. He was a beautiful, sexually adept Seeker who was giving her some of the best interface she'd ever had. Her breath became faster, and even with that help, her cooling fans couldn't keep the heat down; her frame got warmer every passing astrosecond.

Her overload hit with enough mental and physical pleasure to make her entire frame arch off the berth. A disembodied scream came from somewhere in the room, it didn't sound like her, even though it probably was, and her sight came back to her long enough for her to see a flash of bright white light. After that, it was as if a switch had been flipped to turn off the universe. Everything went silent and dark.

* * *

><p>The first thing that brought her back to consciousness was her head. It throbbed. How many cubes had she downed last night? She didn't know, but the thought of high-grade made her tanks rebel. She tried to wriggle out from under whatever heavy thing was on top of her so she could turn over before she purged, but the thing wouldn't budge. So she ended up convulsing and spewing congealed energon all over herself and the heavy thing on top of her. Three times. After that, pretty much nothing was left in her, but her systems adamantly refused to be finished, so she had dry heaves for the next few breems. They accomplished nothing besides thoroughly burning her throat.<p>

The second thing that brought her back to consciousness was movement. On top of her. She didn't want to unshutter her optics to see what this big heavy thing was, but she had to. The high-grade had affected her frequency reader, so she had no idea where anyone was based on spark resonance. Thankfully, the room didn't have any windows, just soft artificial light, so her headache didn't get any worse. The third thing that brought her back to consciousness was the realization of _what_ the heavy thing on top of her _was_. It was a mech. A very handsome, sleek, silver, Seeker mech.

And then everything came back to her. The beautiful mech was Starscream. She'd gotten drunk and they'd screwed each other. Somehow, during that wild and wonderful night, they'd fallen off the berth. She had a hangover. She'd just purged. Everywhere. She still had no idea how many cubes she'd gone through, but it must have been a whole damn lot. She just watched with glazed optics as Starscream came to. He didn't seem nearly as confused as she was. Then again, he hadn't drank anywhere close to the amount of high-grade she had. Good mech.

He slowly looked around, then his optics locked onto hers. And he laughed. The sound was horrible. Screechy, high-pitched, but worst of all, condescending. "So it _did_ happen," he muttered, pushing himself off of her.

She was hurt. He'd wanted her so badly last night. Now he was laughing at her. And inspecting the splotchy bluish goo spattered across his front.

"Sorry," Fury whispered, pulling herself into a sitting position against the berth. Frag, that headache… She cradled her head in her hands as her equilibrium adjusted to the new pose. And it was while looking down that the fourth and final and most terrifying thing that brought her back to consciousness occurred. Her sparkcase was open. She whipped around to look at Starscream, ignoring the thumping protests put up by her head. "Did we…" she'd wanted her voice to be stronger. "…mate?"

Starscream looked up from the vomit he was covered in. "It would seem that we did." His voice was laced with cold, calculating derision.

Back to the arrogant scientist of yesterorn. Fury stared at him for a moment longer before his sharp features blurred. Moisture sprang from her optics and ran down her cheeks. She'd wanted a one-night stand, not a mate. A few joors, not a lifetime. She sat there on the floor, crying, covered in congealed energon. Pitiful may have been what she'd been going for last night, but it was certainly not what she was going for now.

The Seeker huffed and sat down on the berth. "You didn't try to move before you purged?"

"I did try. _You_ wouldn't move. And why is that your main concern? That will wash off. This bond won't, Starscream! I came here hoping to get some interface, which I did. I did not want to walk out of here with a fraggin' mate! Especially not _you_!" Thin fingers came down and rested on her shoulder, but she slapped them away. "Don't touch me. You went too far last night."

"That was an accident. Our sparks got too close—"

"I don't care _what _happened. I didn't ask for this and I've always been much happier single! So go! Leave me alone! I don't want to see you again!"

Surprisingly enough, he did. He left. Without second thought. No matter that she was his _mate_ now. But she should have expected that. He was a complete aft. A sexy one, but she never should have…gotten involved in the first place. Mechs like him were too much damn trouble and she'd made the worst mistake of her life and now that complete (but sexy) aft was her Primus-damned mate and—

"Sweetspark?"

She glared at the doorway. Well, she _tried_ to glare. It probably looked pathetic on the outside. One of the pleasure bots was leaning into the room with a worried expression on her too-perfect face.

"Is this your room? I'm sorry for the mess, I—"

"No, don't worry about it, it'll be easy to clean…" she stepped closer, and sat daintily on the edge of the berth beside Fury. "I may have overheard something about…oh." Her optics fell on the other femme's open sparkcase. "It was true."

"Of course it was. You think I'd joke about bonding with someone who _wasn't even supposed to be my mate!_?" she yelled the last part out of the room for good measure.

"No, dearspark, I don't, I just…" she sighed. "Come up here, let's get you cleaned off. Can't have you leave looking like that." While Fury reluctantly pulled herself onto the berth, the little blue femme pulled a rag and a small bottle of acid from subspace and diligently began wiping all the splattered energon off of Fury's chassis. "Unfortunately, this happens far too often."

Fury snorted, but said nothing.

"Bots come in here looking for interface and they walk out with a mate they don't know or can't get along with, or…" she glanced at Fury, "…both, and then they don't know what to do…some end up committing suicide."

"Not a bad option," Fury growled. "Terrible mate, no job…"

"Don't kill yourself. Please. It's not worth it. Surely there's _someone_ out there who cares about you…?"

"No. No, I don't think so. Not even myself. I'm a pathetic femme that has to get drunk and hook up with a mech to deal with one little screw-up…" Fury stopped herself with a short harsh laugh. "I'm a waste of a spark."

"You're here for a reason. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here at all."

"Yeah, well maybe my reason is comic relief. Don't you think Primus gets stressed having to worry about every single little thing on this planet? Don't you think he wants some entertainment? Well, I'm that entertainment. I was put here so Primus could laugh at all the stupid things I do and…and…" she started crying again. Her head hurt, her throat hurt, her interface port hurt, her spark hurt— She reached up and pressed her hand against her chest.

"What's the matter?"

"My spark hurts."

"How…how similar are you and Starscream?"

The dark femme just glowered.

"Well…maybe…here, let me clean you up, and then we'll take you to a medic. I don't know much about bonds, but…" she went back to scrubbing at the blue mess across Fury's front side.

"But what?"

"I'm not sure. There could be complications…due to the nature of the bonding…"

"Complications?"

"Sweetie, hold still. I don't know. Almost done…"

"Serious complications?"

"There. Clean as a newborn sparkling. Like I said, I'm not sure. Let's get you to a medic…" the pleasure bot put her arm around Fury's shoulders and helped her off the berth and out the door.

The hallway was bad enough, but… "Ugh…not the stairs…" Fury's vision swam as she groped for the handrail and tentatively placed one foot on the step below her. She was almost positive that another joor had passed by the time they reached the bottom, but the little blue pleasure bot was still there beside her, encouraging her to keep walking. The only thing she felt encouraged to do was pass out again.

Through the bar, to the door. Outside. The light and the noises of high noon were too much to handle. Fury's headache pounded into a terrifying crescendo that brought tears to her optics yet again. Horns honked, sirens wailed, shouts echoed off the walls of buildings, brakes screeched to a halt, jet engines whined through the sky…the thought of whining jets made Fury sick. Her tanks pressurized and she bent over and purged again. The motion sent a searing pain through her spark.

"I don't think you'll be able to drive…" the pleasure bot muttered, rubbing the other femme's back. "So we'll wait for the shuttle. And close your sparkcase in the meantime." She reached up and pushed Fury's sparkcase closed, trying to be as gentle as possible. The dark-plated femme flinched away from the touch, but mumbled a gurgling 'thank you.'

The hissing of hydraulics and airlocks announced the arrival of the public transit shuttle. The doors opened and people poured out. Fury didn't look at any of them. They were probably all too busy with their own issues to know or care about what her problems were, but she was ashamed and didn't want to look up and see pitying glances.

The little pleasure bot ushered her onto the shuttle and made her sit down. "You'll feel better if you lean back and rest a little bit. The clinic isn't far, but you need to be stronger when we get there."

Fury gladly let her head roll back against the window and shuttered her optics. She didn't want to have to explain everything that had happened to a medic—especially not while she had a hangover. The shuttle hissed again and rose off the ground, then lurched forward. Surprisingly, her tanks didn't object like she thought they would. That was okay. The less of a scene she made, the better.

She must have fallen into a doze, because the next thing she heard was the pleasure bot talking to her. "Wake up…this is our stop. There you go. Feel better?" Fury shook her head. She didn't bother to lie. She felt like slag. And how on Cybertron was she able to recharge on a shuttle trip that couldn't have been more than a few breems long? Either this was the worst hangover she'd ever had, or Screamer had _really _worn her out. She didn't like that last option. She hadn't blacked out _that_ fast… The thought of Starscream put her in a bad mood. Not sick anymore. Angry. She hated the aft. She never wanted to see him again. But…he was her mate. _That_ made her sick. Mate. That word should have carried sacred significance, but when she thought it, it just felt…dirty. Fake. Unworthy. She didn't love Starscream. She never would. Maybe suicide wouldn't be such a bad idea after all…

"We're here," the other femme murmured, nudging Fury toward a door. She opened it and walked in, not really caring about what other people would see when they looked at her. She just wanted to get this over with and get some more recharge, for Primus' sake. Then sort out her life. And maybe put an end to it.

The clinic was small and no one else was there. But before Fury could get a good look at her surroundings, a well-built femme with deep red paint came into the room, holding a data pad. "I assume you're the one that I was warned about?"

Fury raised an optic ridge, but didn't say anything. Thankfully, the pleasure bot cleared things up. "Yes. She…she's having some spark problems." Then to Fury, "Lifeline and I are good friends."

The medic, Lifeline, turned back to Fury expectantly. "Care to tell me what the nature of these problems is? What exactly is going on?"

Fury sighed. "Can we go back to a room first? I'd like to sit down."

The red femme frowned and scanned Fury. "Hangover… Yeah, follow me. But be prepared to spill your guts, femme."

Fury snorted. "Already done that a couple times."

Lifeline grumbled and remained silent during the short walk back to an examination room. "Get on the table."

Fury did as she was told. The metal was cold on her aft and, while slightly uncomfortable, also felt kind of good.

"Now," Lifeline crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her patient, "Talk."

"I lost my job. So I went to the bar down the street and planned on getting drunk and getting laid."

Lifeline shook her head, obviously disappointed.

"Oh, no, wait, it gets better. So, Starscream walks in. If you've never seen him, he's gorgeous. I decide I want him. I get him to talk to me. He has the worst voice I've ever heard. Anyway, he keeps buying me drinks. There, you got my hangover figured out. We go upstairs to a room after a while. I'm drunk by this point. He jumps right into it. I'm kind of wary at first, because he's coming on so strong, but after a few breems, I decide to just take what he's giving and I end up enjoying it. I overload, see this white light, then black out. When I wake up, I'm sick to my tanks, Screamer wakes up, laughs at me, I notice my _sparkcase_ is open, ask if we bonded, he says yes, then I yell at him, tell him to leave, he does, and then she," Fury's finger identified the little pleasure bot, "comes in and helps me here. The end."

Lifeline narrowed her optics as she thought this over. "One-night stand taken to the extreme. You like Starscream?"

"Pit no."

"Then my guess is that the pain you're feeling in your spark right now is incompatibility. If you're nothing alike and hate each other, your sparks won't want to keep up the bond. If he gets far enough away, then the bond will sever…" the medic turned and opened a drawer. "Just let me look at your spark's energy output." She pulled out some device that Fury had never seen before and hung it against the wall, then disconnected a piece of it and held it in front of Fury's chest. The device beeped a few times and a red light flashed. Lifeline scowled. "Yes. Your bond is breaking. The farther he gets, the weaker it will become. There will be a little pain when you two are cut off from each other, but it won't hurt nearly as much as it would if it were a stronger bond. And one more thing you might want to know." She paused.

"What?"

"I don't even know how this is possible, but…you conceived last night."

Fury snarled. "That's not fraggin' funny, medic."

"I'm not kidding. You conceived. You are carrying a sparkling."

Fury whipped around to look at the device on the wall, as if it would show her the _thing_ she was harboring in her spark. Starscream's…_spawn_…

"You can't see it."

"Damn it!" She slammed her back against the wall and clenched her fists. "Damn it all to the fragging Pit! I don't want it. Stop it right now. Take it out!"

"Are you sure?" Lifeline narrowed her optics at the fuming femme.

"What the frag do you think? I don't want the thing! I conceived with _Starscream._"

"A sparkling is a sparkling."

"_Not_ when its mech creator is Starscream! Take. It. Out."

"No."

Fury flexed her clenched hands. "You don't get to choose. I want it out."

"Deliver it first. Then see if you want it. If not, take it to the Youth Sector."

Fury stared at the red femme, motionless with anger. After a few breems of palpable tension, she turned her head to the side and slowly exhaled. The air rushed out of her vents, hissing. "Fine. I'll deliver it when the time comes, but that doesn't mean I'm raising it." The good moment of knowing she wouldn't have to be ethereally chained to Starscream her whole life was completely outweighed by the fact that she had to carry his sparkling.

"I'm not sure if it will even make the whole term," Lifeline informed, still tense. "You had a lot of high grade in your systems when you conceived, so there could be health issues. And now that you _are _carrying, there are regulations you'll have to adhere to. No drinking. No drugs. Try not to interface. Don't do anything particularly strenuous when you're twenty orns away from delivery…" She finally broke optic contact with her patient and opened a cupboard overhead. "Here's everything you need to know," she continued, handing Fury a data pad. "I'm not sure how well the sparkling will cope without bonded Creators, needless to say, this doesn't happen often."

"Leave it to me to be the fragged up exception…"

Lifeline gave a heavy sigh. "Look, I have an appointment in a few breems. You need to leave before any of us suffocate in all this…hate floating around. Take the shuttle home, try to get some rest. And for Primus' sake, don't screw this up. Sparklings are precious, even if their mech creators are arrogant pains in the aft—"

"Couldn't have said it better."

"—and I would hope that there would be a slight burden on your conscious if you were to lose this little one somehow."

"Duly noted," Fury said, sliding off the table.

"My contact information is in the guide, if you need to reach me for any reason. And if you do, try to be…civil."

"Not really good at being civil. But I can certainly try." She headed for the door, but turned back and looked at the pleasure bot who had been standing there quietly the entire time. "I have no problem with you. Thank you for…cleaning me up and whatnot."

"No trouble," the blue femme replied with a shallow bow.

Fury gave a half-sparked head-bob in return and escaped onto the street. The next shuttle would be there soon. Well, this whole fiasco was irony at its finest. Just last night, she'd been thanking Primus that she didn't have a sparkling to take care of. Now she did. Was it punishment for such a major frag-up? Or simply coincidence? She was leaning toward punishment, considering that a conception under those conditions was…improbable. She'd had so much high-grade in her…and she and Starscream weren't the least bit compatible…and yet she still managed to conceive a sparkling. Was it terrible to wish for the little thing not to make it?

The shuttle arrived right on schedule. Fury was lost in thought as she stepped on and sat down. Her fingers played over the edges of the pad she held. She'd read up on everything. Try her absolute best to take care of herself and the sparkling, and if things didn't go according to plan…oh well, right? She sighed and turned on the data pad, skimming through the first couple screens past the legal information. And the mushy intro. She was not a happy Creator ready to bring another life into the world. She just wanted to know what she could and couldn't do and what she needed to expect. This was going to be one Pit of an adventure…

By the time the shuttle stopped where she had to get out, she'd read the first few sections. There had been a huge list of do's and don'ts. She wasn't exactly thrilled about that. She'd never really been one to follow rules. Anyone who looked at her criminal records would know that. But if she was going to try to keep this sparkling alive (for as long as possible), then she would follow the rules. She tripped up the stairs to her door, opened it, promptly closed it, and stood there staring at the sad little apartment she lived in. If she were this sparkling, she wouldn't want to be born into a place like this.

"Why me, Primus? Why the frag did it have to be me? You trying to teach me a lesson or something?" She sat down on her berth with her back to the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest. "I'm sure there are so many femmes out there that are desperate to have a sparkling. But it had to be me. I don't want it. It's going to make my life a mess. Everything will turn upside down…" she rested her chin on her knees and shuttered her optics. She wasn't surprised to find herself crying. Again. This was so much more than she'd bargained for. And all because of that stupid job. If she hadn't lost her job, none of this would have happened. She sighed and lay down, closing the shutters on the window. The sunlight was mocking her. She hated sunlight. What did the sun have to be so happy about anyway? Nothing. It was just a ball of burning gas sitting out there in space. It couldn't feel or think anything.

A sudden sharp pain in her spark made the air catch in her vents. It intensified, stayed that way for a few astroseconds, then subsided into a dull throb. Finally, no more Starscream. She knew that wasn't what a bond was supposed to feel like. It had been a horrible bond. She hadn't even been able to feel him through that weak little link they'd forged. No matter. It was all over now. She never had to see him again if she didn't want to. Was he flying back to Iacon right now? If so, she hoped that little bond breakage caused him to fall and crash. She thought about praying for it, but then decided not to. Primus was mad at her right now and probably wouldn't be taking requests.

She was tired. She just needed to recharge. Take the medic's advice. Hey, maybe she'd come online to find that it was all a dream…wouldn't that be nice. But that never actually happened. Only in stories. Stupid stories. No. This was real. This was actually happening. She was going to have a sparkling. Starscream's fragging sparkling.


	2. Separation

**A/N:** Here's a quick update for you all. Hopefully it'll be a little more exciting than the first chapter. This story is coming along really well, lots of inspiration (I hope I didn't just jinx myself), so chapter three should be up in about a week or two depending on how busy I am with school work and scholarship applications. Cross your fingers for me!

Again, thanks to **Hearts of Eternity** for her great ideas (specifics of which are listed in the first chapter), some of which I use, thanks to my sister, **Farky-fark and the Munky Bunch**, for her support, and thanks to **Litahatchee**, for inspiration and a confidence boost.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Transformers. Just write about them.

The OCs **Fury**, **Sunstrike**, **Lifeline**, and **Raindance** are mine. If you want to use them, just ask.

There are a few weird things that I'm still working out regarding the whole birth issue…basically, in a nutshell, the frame and the spark are conceived separately. The spark is conceived within the femme's spark (due to the bonding), and the frame starts out as a viscous fluid inside a holding cylinder in the femme's body (due to the combining of both creator's "genetics" via the interfacing). About half-way through the carrying term (and when I say carrying, I just mean that the femme is harboring an infant spark within her own, this is not the same thing as Litahatchee's carrying idea, although I do like that) the cylinder holding the frame fluid is taken out and the fluid itself is kept in a refrigerated unit and allowed to form into the sparkling's frame. Don't ask me how that works yet, like I said, I'm still working things out. Suggestions will be taken gladly. Meanwhile, the sparkling separates itself from its mother's spark, but not entirely, they're still connected by a thin thread of energy not unlike an organic umbilical cord. When the femme goes into delivery, that thread breaks, severing her life force from the sparkling's. The medic present takes the sparkling and puts it into its frame. Voila, baby transformer. I made this method up, as far as I know, I have not yet run across anything that sounds similar. I just thought I'd explain it here because it can be kinda confusing.

Most of the chapter is just conversations and thoughts, but there's a little bit of everything squelched up in here in terms of genre. Some of it's funny, some of it's sad, some of it's creepy, so…read, review, and enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>Separation:<strong>

Half her term was up and she'd managed to avoid divulging any embarrassing information about the sparkling or the circumstances regarding the conception. Up until now.

"We know _something's_ going on. You've been sick and you haven't had any mechs over lately."

"Please tell me you're not listening that closely to what goes on in my apartment."

"We try not to, but, you're loud."

Fury kept quiet and shoved her face under the showerhead. She couldn't help being loud…she liked interface.

"Do you have an ITV?"

"No."

"Hm. Surprising. Then you're carrying a sparkling."

Again, Fury fell silent.

"Actually find a mech you could settle down with?"

"Don't have a mate." She glared across the short distance that separated her from her neighbors. They were sisters and couldn't be more different. Maybe Sunstrike felt the need to talk enough to make up for her speechless sister. "I met the mech—"

"At the bar?"

"How'd you know…?" Fury drawled. "Yes, I met him at the bar. Got drunk, hooked up, accidentally bonded, he left. End of story." She scrubbed at a scuff on her forearm with a vengeance.

"So you _do_ have a mate."

"Bond broke." The scrubbing got more violent.

"And the sparkling's still healthy?"

"Alive, for now. Don't know about healthy." Damn. Paint scrubbed off. She wrung out the sponge. The wringing was notably more thorough than usual. Maybe imagining the sponge as Starscream's _neck_ had something to do with that.

"So who _was_ this mysterious lover?"

"Sunstrike, leave her—"

The other femme cut her sister off. "He live around here?"

"No."

"Where's he from?"

"Iacon." So let them guess.

"Why won't you tell us who he is?"

"It's kind of embarrassing." They wouldn't know.

"Is he ugly?"

Fury snorted and shook her head. "No. He's beautiful." She shot a glance at her neighbor, who was arching an optic ridge at her. "Not being sarcastic. He really is."

"Yet you're embarrassed to tell us his name."

Fury cleared her vents. "I don't know why you keep saying 'us.' You're the one pestering me. Your sister's trying to be considerate and leave me alone…"

Sunstrike sighed. "I'm just curious. It's not like you to have a sparkling."

"Like I said, wasn't my decision."

"Right, right. Accidental bonding." Fury's neighbor went back to washing herself. "A beautiful but embarrassing mech from Iacon…is he a…Seeker?" Fury knew the expression on her neighbor's face without even looking up. The voice was enough. "You have a bit of a fetish for wings, don't you?" The femme gave a triumphant little 'hmph.' "A beautiful but embarrassing Seeker from Iacon…"

Fury shuttered her optics. Here it was. The terrible realization. The news was out…

"Starscream. It was Screamer, wasn't it?"

Fury just nodded. No use denying something that was so obviously true. She _did_ have a thing for Seekers. Starscream _was_ beautiful but embarrassing. And…her reputation was now a smoldering heap of slag lying about a breem behind her. She dared a glance at Sunstrike. The self-satisfaction on the femme's face was nigh infuriating. Even her sister had the sense to look dumbstruck. But Primus bless her; she tried to help: "You and Starscream are both smart and attractive…so, the sparkling will turn out alright." But the inflection she used made it sound more like a question. A question that Fury would more than likely answer with a definitive 'no.' "He's an arrogant aft," she growled, turning off the shower with a hard twist.

"Aft or not, it was still a fantasy come true, right Fury?"

Fury grumbled and yanked a towel from the wall, proceeding to dry herself, albeit rather angrily. She really hated Sunstrike's voice. Especially when she was flaunting something.

"I imagine he was pretty good when you two got going."

Fury didn't bother to tell her neighbor just how great that night had been.

"How hard has it been keeping your interface cable nicely stowed away for the past few cycles?"

Fury pulled the towel off her head and smirked. "Not hard at all, actually. You know, my drive has decreased since conceiving." Which was a complete and total lie. If anything, her desire for interface had gotten even stronger. It was all but physically painful to lie on her berth, night after night, alone, without any of the familiarities of having a mech lying beside her. The extra warmth, the sound of him periodically cycling air through his vents as he recharged…

"I bet you won't last three orns without interface after you deliver that sparkling."

Fury grinned. "Bet's on. 1000 credits."

Sunstrike sputtered. "1000? Fury, don't you think that's a little—"

"You made the bet. 1000 credits."

"Fine. You're the one without a job…"

"I know. When those three days are up, though…mechs better watch out." She smirked over at her neighbor. "Keep your mate inside."

Sunstrike's face grew dark. "You wouldn't…"

Fury just shrugged, hung up her towel, and left.

* * *

><p>"Those credits are mine, little one. To spend on…well, you, most likely." She sighed. "You have any idea how expensive you'll be once you're born? No, of course you don't. You have no concept of currency. Why am I even talking to you? You can't hear me and you can't answer…" Fury took her cube of energon to her berth and sat down. "You're killing me, you know. I'm about to run out into the street and force myself on the first mech I see. I don't know if I'll be able to hold out long enough for my 1000 credits." She laughed quietly. "If you could have seen Sunstrike's face when I told her to keep her mech inside…priceless."<p>

She picked up the data pad that had been living on the side-table since she found out she was going to have a sparkling. "You'll be hungry every joor…and consequently you'll have to flush your tanks every couple joors… You'll cry, you'll purge, you'll be messy and loud. I'm still not sure I want to keep you…" She picked up her energon and swirled it thoughtfully. "But now that everyone knows the truth about who sired you…I just might keep you around. Show everyone how well I can raise you." She took a few sips of the energon. "I don't appreciate you making me sick, though. Recharging on the washroom floor, while I'm unfortunately used to it, is not fun. I'm still recovering from last night. My tanks are doing enough flips to give the local stunt troupe a run for its credits." She took another few sips from her cube. "Not to mention you've completely ruined my reputation…but maybe…maybe you've helped me. I'll be a Creator, not just a desperate femme that terrorizes local bars. And local mechs. And…non-local mechs. I'll have someone other than myself to be responsible for. Okay, I'll _have_ someone to be responsible for. I never was responsible for myself. With my drinking or my sexuality, but what else is there? I'm not part of a high-ranking family, I don't have a job anymore, no connections to speak of…unless you count interface connections. I'm a nobody. I have nothing to my name, no family. If I were to die, who would care? Sure, people would notice, but it wouldn't cause any sort of emotional strain because no one really knows about me. But now, you, you've made me a little more noticeable. Yes, it is because you're the product of a hook-up with Starscream, but…you're still attracting attention."

She stopped and looked down at her chassis, then back up. "Attention. Maybe that's what I've wanted. The most I ever get only lasts a night or two at a time. Even your mech creator…huh, even—of _course_ he did the same thing, the arrogant son of a glitch—left me, and laughed! He laughed, little one. Got up, laughed, scolded me for purging on him, then walked away. Partly because I told him to, yes, but he was the same as all the others. After he got what he wanted from me, he left because he couldn't use me anymore…"

She sighed. It had gotten dark. She pulled the shutter across the window and turned on the lamp beside the berth. "Maybe, little one, maybe I'm the same way. I've never actually pursued a relationship. I've never even gone on a date. I never…committed. The only real commitment I held was my job, and I don't even have that anymore. If I give you up, you'll just be one more thing I walked out on…" Strangely enough, an inkling of happiness filtered through Fury's dour emotions. It wasn't hers. No, her unsparked sparkling was trying to cheer her up. "I bet you're excited," Fury murmured to the tiny presence. "You can't wait to get out and see the world. Well, it isn't always a great place, sweetspark. There are lots of problems. It's a mess." She set the data pad back down on the table and turned off the lamp and just lay there, listening to the quiet sounds of night. The occasional vehicle rolling by, sirens as the Security Response rushed to answer a call, muffled conversations from bots walking by the window. She remembered what the world had seemed like to her when she was only a few orns old. It was big and intimidating, but filled with endless possibilities at the same time. She'd had no fear as she ran around, looking at everything, chirping questions to her creators. It had been so full of life and color at the time. She had no doubt that it would seem the same way to her little sparkling on its creation-day. She just hoped that for her sparkling, the life and the color would never leave.

* * *

><p>"Nice to see you, Fury," Lifeline smirked, patting the examination table in front of her.<p>

Fury lifted herself onto it without complaint. "I can feel it, Lifeline."

The medic merely gave a brief nod. "Typical at the half-term mark. Have you been reading that information?"

"Yes. This sparkling is going to be a pain in the aft once it's born, isn't it?"

A rare smile graced Lifeline's mouth. "At times, yes. But not always."

"You have a sparkling?"

"I do. Well, I did. He's an adult now, but at the time, he was worth every bit of the trouble he got into. Just like yours will be. Now, in a few orns, you will experience a strange feeling of having your spark stretched…that's just the sparkling separating herself from the majority of your spark—"

"Herself?"

"Yes, your sparkling is a femme—and, thankfully, that feeling doesn't last long."

Fury waved her hand. "I read all about that. Is having a femme any different than having a mech?"

"It really depends on the sparkling, but generally femmes are quieter. And smaller. The second thing, and it should be ready by now, is the frame fluid. You know what that is?"

"Yeah." She watched as the medic procured several sharp instruments from various drawers. Along with a needle and syringe. "You're going to operate on me aren't you?"

"Yes. But it's a very small, tidy procedure that shouldn't require any sort of anesthesia. Just something to lock up the neural relays in your abdominal region, a quick in-and-out, and you're done." She spread her required tools out on a nearby counter. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be, I suppose."

"You can even stay sitting. Take off that plate, mmhm, that one, and let me…" Lifeline readied the injection. "This goes right here…might sting a little, but you won't be able to feel a thing soon…there you go."

"That works fast." Already, a numbness was spreading through Fury's abdominal wiring.

"This shouldn't take more than a few breems." Lifeline unscrewed a more permanent exoskeletal panel from Fury's abdomen and set it aside.

"How long does it take for the frame to form?"

"Anywhere from a few orns to a few cycles." The medic parted a few wires and pushed a protoform plate aside to reveal a cylindrical tube.

"Is that coming out?"

"It certainly is. Then I'll siphon all the frame fluid out into this cooling unit and put the cylinder back into you. In case you ever properly pursue a relationship and decide to have another sparkling."

Fury scoffed. "Can you just take it out permanently?"

Lifeline clucked disapprovingly. "Now why on Cybertron would you want to have that done?"

Fury glared at her.

"I _could_ take it out for good, but I think you'll change your mind eventually."

"I think _not_, but go ahead and do whatever you were going to do." She leaned against the wall and shuttered her optics. A femme. Screamer sired a femme. She didn't know if he would be humiliated or not. She hoped he would.

"Almost done…"

Fury unshuttered her optics to see Lifeline switching on the suction in the cooling unit. Tubes were attached to both the unit and the cylinder. "Can't believe all that thick gooey stuff ends up as a functioning sparkling frame."

"Ah, just a frame. I have to add the wires and the programming to make it function. And it needs a spark. But it is rather amazing. All my vorns as a medic and I still…" she stopped and went back to monitoring the transfer.

"I wonder what she'll look like…" Fury mused.

"If she takes after either of her creators she'll be lucky."

"You realize you just complimented Screamer?"

"And you. I've seen a few Seeker sparklings. They're gorgeous. Tiny little wings, delicate features."

"I'm not a Seeker."

"No, but Starscream is. And considering he's her mech creator, there's a good chance she'll end up looking like him."

"As long as she doesn't end up sounding like him…"

The suction on the cooling unit slurped, then popped, and the tube connecting it to the cylinder went slack, allowing Lifeline to unhook it.

"Will her frame be finished in time for me to see it before I deliver?"

"It should be."

"About the delivery… I've read about it in the information you gave me, but it would be nice to hear some things from you. I mean, you've experienced it…"

Lifeline sighed. "I had a feeling you'd ask."

"You don't have to—"

"No, no, it's fine, but it's a question I've had to answer far too many times." She punched in a code on a nearby keypad, opening a panel in the wall about the size of the cooling unit. As the metal slid back, she rolled the unit into the small storage space and re-engaged the lock once it was safely positioned.

Fury rested her head against the wall again as Lifeline replaced the holding cylinder. It was strange to feel pressure without any pain. If her pressure grid was disengaged, she wouldn't be able to tell that someone was digging around inside her frame. "I still can't believe she made it this far."

"Perhaps it's payback for you wishing she wouldn't."

Fury looked down at the medic, but she hadn't even looked up. She was still working diligently. "I didn't _want_ her to die. I didn't _try_ to miscarry."

The pressure of Lifeline's hands stopped at this comment and she glanced up. "I never said you did."

"But you just…" she stopped and looked around the small room. No one was there. "Nevermind."

Lifeline frowned. "Did I reconnect something wrong?" She peered into Fury's frame to try and find the problem.

"No, no, I'm fine. Probably just a subroutine that triggered a memory loop." Except that no one had said those words to her before.

Lifeline shrugged and went back to work. A few astroseconds later, the tube snapped back into place. "There. Done." She stood and helped Fury replace the exoskeletal plates that had been removed for the operation.

"So, about the delivery?"

"It will hurt. You'll want to die. Thankfully, it only takes about half a joor. You get your shiny little aft in here the _very moment_ you think you're going into delivery. I've had to direct deliveries via comm. station for femmes who waited until it was too late to move because they thought the pains were a false alarm. The best place to deliver a sparkling is in a clinic. Clean, well-lit, tracking monitors, a medic." She nailed Fury with a commanding glare. "So you come to me the _instant_ you feel pains in your spark. Understand?"

Fury nodded.

* * *

><p>Strangled retching filled the large room in which the wash racks were housed. Thick orange liquid wound its way across the floor to the drain, aided by the cleaning fluid pouring out of the shower overhead. It was late. Too late to be online. And sick. What was it about this sparkling that messed up her systems so badly? What was it <em>doing<em> in there? She pitched forward and purged again. It was taking all her energon, that much she knew. She had been ingesting twice as much as normal and still felt exhausted to the point of blacking out. Not to mention she was still only flushing her tanks five times an orn.

Lifeline said the little leech was healthy, so this was apparently supposed to happen. She wished the medic had just taken out the holding cylinder for good. That way, she would never have another sparkling. She could recharge with as many mechs as she was physically able to and even bond with one…and never have another sparkling. Ever. Right now, that was sounding pretty damn good.

She still had mixed feelings about this one. If she kept it…oh, dear Primus. If she gave it up, she would consider herself a complete and total failure. All her friends were constantly gushing over their own sparklings, and the little brats _were_ adorable, but Fury wasn't sure she wanted to be chained down by one. It would be a huge responsibility. It would need nonstop care and comfort. It would make messes. It would cry. Unless she downloaded basic lingual files into it as soon as she was able. Then it would be able to communicate in a language that wasn't comprised of high-pitched wails. She wasn't sure she wanted to deal with all the issues that raising a sparkling would bring.

She groaned and sat back against the column that the showerheads came out of, letting the cleaning fluid wash away the smell of purged energon. She was still calling the sparkling an 'it.' It wasn't an 'it.' Not anymore. It was a femme. "We need a name for you, little one," she sighed. "What do you think Starscream will do once he hears that he has a daughter? Probably nothing. He'll just continue on with his research like nothing happened. It'll just be us. We can do that, can't we? We can fend for ourselves."

The sound of the sliding door made Fury stop talking to her unborn sparkling and look up. The door was closed. The wash racks were still empty. She shrugged and shuttered her optics. "It's been a strange day, little one." She thought back to her visit with Lifeline, the words 'perhaps it's payback for you wishing she wouldn't' playing over and over in her processor. That had never been said to her before. It couldn't be a memory. And when she'd answered, Lifeline had no idea what she was responding to. Had she been imagining it? She must have been. Maybe it was her subconscious. She'd never really listened to it before. She always thought it would be in her own voice, though.

She unshuttered her optics and stood up cautiously. When no waves of nausea threatened to bring her to her knees again, she turned off the shower and took a few steps toward the towels. Her walking had been a little shaky ever since Lifeline gave her that numbing injection. She could barely feel anything from her waist to her knees, and that was an improvement. At Lifeline's clinic, she'd slid off the table and prepared to leave…and had fallen straight to the floor. She'd had to stay a while until she could actually walk without help.

Sighing and hanging up the towel, she shuffled toward the door. The sickness brought on by the sparkling was getting worse as the delivery date neared. She just wanted to have the little thing and be done with the late-night purging episodes.

The door slipped open as she approached and passed through into the hallway. It was dark. No one was awake at this insane joor of night. Fury wished she were still recharging as well. _I_ _will be soon_, she thought, lethargically tapping the button on the lift that would take her to her floor. The doors closed and the giant pulley somewhere above her in the dark shaft groaned as the lift began to rise. She leaned against the wall and listened to the familiar creaking. This building was so old. The bots that lived in it always liked to joke that it was haunted. Fury didn't believe it. Then again…she was usually only wandering the halls during the orn. Never at night. Until now. And she almost believed her superstitious neighbors. This atmosphere was perfect for lurking ghosts and otherworldly apparitions. She wished the elevator would move a little faster.

And it stopped. It wasn't on her floor. Her breath caught in her vents as her processor came up with all the things that could happen. She half expected the door to open and that she would see some terrible creature standing there ready to tear her to pieces. She swore she could hear faint whispers outside and she waited there, pressed up against the wall, paralyzed, until ancient gears ground below her and the lift began to move again.

She didn't move again until she was two floors above where the lift had stopped. She slumped down to a sitting position and began to cycle air through her frame again. Her optics were glued to the door the rest of the trip and when she did reach her floor and the door opened, she jumped. Slowly, she pulled herself to her feet, a bit shaky, and hurried out of the lift and down the hall to her quarters.

Once inside, she turned on all the lights, checked both doors, the interior and exterior, to see if all the locks were in place, then checked the windows to see if _they_ were locked. Her conscious mind told her that she was behaving like a sparkling and that she'd imagined all of that, except for the lift stopping, of course, but some other part of her was making her behave like this. Making her fight-or-flight response kick in, heightening her senses, telling her that there_ was_, in fact, a very real threat out there.

After she'd checked and double-checked the locks on both the windows and the doors, she sat down on her berth and just stared. Straight ahead at the doorway. If anything was out there, it was _not_ going to sneak up on her. Funny that just a few cycles earlier, she had been contemplating suicide. Now, she was ready to fight for her life against a threat that she wasn't even sure existed.

* * *

><p>Gradually, joors passed and the distant sun rose. Exhaustion had finally overtaken Fury and she'd fallen into recharge where she sat, still ready to defend herself. A light tingling in her spark woke her. Her processor was still stuck in the fight scenario from the night before, so she came online with a violent start and snarled at the doorway, thinking something was attacking. When she saw nothing, and recognized the feeling in her spark, she looked around and stretched, then opened the window. Comforting sounds of daily life floated through.<p>

Another light pulse zinged through her spark again. No matter how many times she felt it, the feeling would not get any less strange. Just knowing that there was something, some_one_, besides herself inhabiting her frame. She'd heard that females of organic species were able to feel their offspring kicking and moving around inside them and thought this was similar. Though, she thought that if she were organic, she wouldn't be able to handle that. This was weird enough.

A soft knock at the exterior door surprised her. She shimmied off her berth and went to answer it. Thankfully, it was much easier to walk now that the medication had almost completely worn off.

Standing outside was the little blue pleasure bot that had helped her the day she'd found out she was carrying a sparkling. "Hello, Fury." She gave a small bow.

"Um…hi." There was a moment of awkward silence. "No offense, but why are you here?"

"I just thought I'd drop by to see how you were doing. Do you mind?"

"No. No, of course not. Um, you want to come in?" Fury opened the door a little wider, since she was now convinced that her visitor was not the ghost she'd almost run into last night.

"Thank you," the blue femme smiled, accepting the invitation.

Fury shut the door after her. "Sorry it's not exactly the most…luxurious living space. I'm sure you're used to much more—"

"No, it's fine. I like it. It's cozy." She smiled again, sitting down in a chair in the main room.

Fury stood by the door awkwardly.

"How's your sparkling?"

In spite of herself, Fury smiled a little. "She's fine."

The pleasure bot's face lit up. "It's a femme? Oh, you'll love her."

"I hope so…"

"You will. I know it." She sighed happily and looked around. "How long have you lived here?"

"Since I started working at the job that I no longer have."

The pleasure bot frowned, but nodded.

"These apartments are for the workers. When I got…dismissed…the superintendent didn't have the spark to kick me out."

"That was nice."

"Yeah. I guess." She wandered away from the door and sat down across from the other femme. "You never did tell me your name when we met."

"Oh, it's Raindance."

"Raindance…how'd you get it?"

The blue femme laughed. "My creators thought of it during the first storm that I had ever seen. I was a few orns old and the first thing I did was run outside and play in the rain." She gave a reminiscent smile.

"I've been thinking about names."

"Wait until she's old enough to have developed her own mannerisms. Names derived from something personal are always the best."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Silence fell for a few breems before Raindance asked, "So how are _you_ doing? I know carrying a sparkling can be difficult."

"Mm…I've been pretty sick, lately. It's getting worse. At first, it was just headaches and a bit of nausea here and there, but now…I've been spending joors purging in the wash racks in the middle of the night." She thought briefly about telling Raindance what had happened on her way back to her quarters last night, but decided against it. She didn't need one more person thinking she was crazy.

"That's too bad. Have you seen Lifeline?"

"I just went to her for my half-term checkup. She said both the sparkling and I were fine."

"Well, I trust her judgment."

"Me too."

Again, silence lapsed between them. And again, Raindance broke it. "Are you nervous? About the delivery?"

"Yes. Very."

"Lifeline will take good care of you."

"I have no doubt she will," Fury sighed, standing and stretching. Several plates snapped back into place. She was uncomfortable from sitting all night while she recharged and didn't feel like sitting anymore.

"Have you…seen Starscream since you…?"

A harsh laugh puffed out of the dark femme. "No. And that's fine with me."

"That's what I thought…"

"Will he be notified when I deliver the sparkling?"

"Not unless you want him to be."

Another short laugh. "Well, I don't. He'll _never_ find out, if I have my way." She wandered over to the energon dispenser on the wall and fiddled with it. "You want something?"

"No, thank you. I actually have an appointment soon, so I'd better be going." The little femme stood and smiled. "It was nice talking to you. I wish you the best during your delivery."

Fury answered with a nod and started toward the door.

"I can show myself out," Raindance assured.

"Okay. I'll see you later, then…"

"Later." With another small bow, the pleasure bot left and closed the door behind her.

Fury stood there for a few breems, not really sure what to do. Why on Cybertron had she come over? And what was with that "appointment" that so conveniently popped up? Sure, she was a pleasure bot, someone probably required her services…but why would she bother to come over and just…_talk_, in the five breems before she had to be somewhere? And ask about Starscream? Fury had made it painfully obvious that she did not want anything to do with the mech, so why did she ask those questions like there was an actual _relationship_ involved?

Shrugging, she turned away from the door and went back to the energon dispenser to make something for herself. She was being paranoid. Ever since that encounter with…well, for Primus' sake, it was probably nothing, but the experience still had her on edge.

The sparkling fidgeted again and another jolt of electricity shot down Fury's spinal column. "What are you doing in there?" She glanced down at her chest, then back up to watch the progress of the energon filling the cube she held. "Do you know you're about to get fed? You're a greedy little thing, aren't you?" More electric currents. Curious, Fury took her cube to her room and set it on the berth-side table before standing in front of the mirror. Somewhat hesitantly, she pushed back the plating that guarded her sparkcase, then pushed back the case itself. The air seemed cold on the normally protected inner walls of the casing. Fury shivered. The last time she'd felt air around her spark was when she'd woken up on the floor of Raindance's room in the bar. It wasn't really a pleasant memory.

She studied her spark. It looked the same way it always had. Bright, bluish-white. Another zing of electricity raced through her frame and her spark seemed to swell for a moment, before returning to normal size. "She's separating," Fury breathed, sitting down on her berth to watch. The currents became stronger and faster, and a little bulge began to form on the edge of her spark. With each jolt of electricity, it managed to come a little farther out. Fury could only sit and watch. It didn't hurt like she thought it would. She could sense the sparkling's desperation to break free. Finally, with one last shock that nearly sent Fury jumping off the berth, the sparkling freed itself. One tiny string of energy connected it to Fury's spark. It seemed content, floating there gently in the newfound openness.

Fury watched it for a moment longer before resealing her chassis. She picked up the cube she'd set down and took a sip. It was mild, so she barely felt it go down. She knew that the sparkling was enjoying it. It—she—was so small. Fury had seen sparklings before, obviously, they were rather commonplace, but now seeing her own next to her spark…she wanted to protect it. She didn't know when the change had happened. When Lifeline had broken the news, she had ordered the medic to take it out. Kill it. Now, a previously hidden part of her wanted to defend it with all she had. The sparkling seemed to catch on to these thoughts and offered her own excitement. "You think you're independent, don't you, little one? Not yet, you're not. You have to wait a few cycles for that."


	3. Innocence

**A/N:** Well, here's chapter three for all you faithful followers… Hope you enjoy this update. But first, just one thing to say before we get to the actual writing:

If you like a story, review it. I have been a culprit of fave-ing without reviewing, but seriously. It doesn't have to be an essay or anything; even just a few words of encouragement are great and really do a lot for a writer. I said this in my profile; I write for reviews! Fanfiction, for me, is, well, fun, but also serves as a way to hone my skills for my original (and hopefully, professional) writing. So give me tips, tell me what you liked about the chapter, give me a heads-up on what could use some tweaking, even just a 'hey, this is awesome,' would be greatly appreciated. If I don't hear from you guys, I either assume no one's reading (which isn't true: 125 visitors), or that you guys don't like it. But if you _don't _like it, then say so! Nicely. Tell me what I could change to make it more enjoyable. This is all about the technique and the learning for me, people. 125 visitors and 3 reviews (from my sister and one of her friends) isn't so great. So, if you take the time to read, take the few minutes to review too. Besides, if you do, you'll be mentioned in my thank you list right below this sentence. And you'll make my day. And I'll probably respond and answer your questions.

Thanks to **Farky-fark and the Munky Bunch** and **FugiFara175** for reviewing the last two chapters and thanks to **MyPinkiePie** and **Amkano **for adding this story to their favorites list.

**Disclaimer:** I think everyone knows by now that I don't own Transformers even though I wish I did.

**Fury, Sunstrike, Raindance, **and** Lifeline **are mine. But I'm sure they would be willing to work with someone else if asked nicely. XD

Now, be prepared to meet an adorable sparkling, even though most of this is just conversations regarding her care since Fury knows nothing about being a creator. The next chapter should be more about the sparkling and her crazy antics.

Read, review, and enjoy, my friends.

* * *

><p><strong>Innocence:<strong>

The _instant_ she felt the pains, Lifeline had said. Well, she was pretty sure these were the pains. They came regularly, sharp and quick like ethereal stabs. But it was more than just physical pain; she felt like crying and purging and screaming too. And what was even more disturbing, the sparkling was distressed. Maybe something was terribly wrong here. Well, terribly wrong or not, she had to get to Lifeline's clinic. Would she be able to drive? Slag. She hadn't thought about that. Although, the longer she thought about it, the sooner the sparkling would be delivered. She just had to get there.

Mustering all the strength and courage she could, she opened the front door and all but jumped into the street, collapsing into her alt mode with more grace than she thought she had. Her driving was shaky and she swerved a few times when her spark sent out a bad shock, but by a sheer miracle, she made it to the clinic in one piece. A rather agonized, shaking, terrified, and confused piece, but one piece nonetheless. She burst in the door, cycling air through her vents as fast as she could. Lifeline was discussing something with her secretary when she entered. They both looked up, quizzical, but as soon as Fury pointed at her spark, the medic was immediately in action.

"Back here," she barked, all but dragging Fury down the hallway to a spacious and surprisingly dim room. "On the berth. Now."

Fury obeyed while Lifeline leapt around, gathering supplies and turning on various monitoring devices. Another wave of electricity shot through Fury's spark and the femme found herself uncontrollably nauseated. She bent forward and purged—yet again. She'd gotten so used to it that it didn't even hurt anymore. Only this time, once it was out, she didn't feel any better.

"Lean back," Lifeline commanded, ignoring the mess and adhering two wires to Fury's chest just below her shoulders via magnets. She flipped a switch on the connected device and it began transmitting gentle magnetic pulses. "That should tone things down a bit."

It did, much to Fury's relief. The delivery pains weren't nearly as bad as they had just been. "The sparkling's scared," she mumbled.

Lifeline nodded. "That's normal, actually. Part of it is that she's sensing _your_ fear. Try to relax. At least, as much as you can. I'm going to get the frame; I'll be right back. Open up your sparkcase to give her some room to move." The medic vanished in a hurry, leaving Fury alone.

She fumbled with the protective plating over her spark. She suddenly felt so weak and came to the irrational conclusion that she was dying. No, she couldn't die. She would not let herself die. After all the trouble this sparkling had put her through, she was _not_ going to die delivering it. Finally, she managed to expose her spark. Its light washed through the dim room, bluish-white as always.

She felt her sparkling's confusion and fear and tried to calm it down through their bond. She wasn't very good at the whole bond-communication thing yet, apparently, as the sparkling stopped freaking out for only a moment before resuming her trembling.

Thankfully, Lifeline returned with the frame then. "Alright, I'm sure this little one wants out, so let's get her out." She stood alongside the berth near her patient's head. "I won't have to do most of this. Your own body will handle the majority of things. I'm just supervising."

Fury nodded, albeit with a grimace. The pulses were getting worse again. A particularly strong one forced her to sit up and cry out.

Lifeline didn't try to soothe her. She let her cry. And scream. And curse Starscream for what she was going through. Each jolt evoked some kind of response. A groan. A cough. A scream. Sometimes, just a silent gritting of dental plates.

After about ten breems, a sizzling sound came from Fury's spark and the dark-plated femme tensed. "Relax. Everything's fine. You're almost done."

Fury wasn't convinced, but did as she was told. Pressure seemed to be building inside her spark. Primus, it hurt worse than anything she'd ever felt. It grew to the point where Fury felt like she was being strangled by pure energy. Shortly after, she felt an immense pain and she heard (and felt) she heard something pop inside her sparkcase. Then, finally, a blissful nothingness. She flopped back onto the berth, exhausted, and glanced at Lifeline. The medic was smiling. No, she was outright _grinning_. Honestly, it was a little creepy, considering the femme was _never_ happy. "Is it over…?" She sounded as tired as she felt. She could use a nice, orn-long nap right about now…

"Your part of it, yes," was the answer. Lifeline bent over the berth and peered into Fury's sparkcase. "Come here, little one…" With her hands cupped, she reached in. A few astroseconds later, she let out an exasperated huff. "She's playing."

Fury sat up to see what was going on. A tiny orb of light was zipping around her spark in circles, evading the medic's hands as she made another snatch for it. "Let me see if I can get her out," Fury murmured, reaching in as Lifeline withdrew her hands. The sparkling hesitated, then settled herself serenely into her femme creator's palm and allowed herself to be taken out.

"Great. Here's her frame," Lifeline said, bringing the tiny metal body out of its wrapping.

Fury tipped her hand toward the miniscule sparkcase that was open and waiting. The sparkling brightened and slipped in without hesitation. The casing automatically snapped shut, followed by the outer protective plates, and for the first time, Fury was able to see the frame. She closed her sparkcase absently and inspected the tiny thing. It was almost a spitting image of a smaller Starscream, but that in itself wasn't terrible. Fragile little wings flared up behind the shoulders and it had his sharper features, but the coloring was different. Whereas he was a light, pearly silver, the frame had more of Fury's color; a darker, steely, grayish-silver. Long legs and arms completed the similarities to its mech creator. Looking at it, Fury felt no bitterness. It housed a sparkling. An innocent creature that had no knowledge of anything its mech creator had done.

"Her systems are booting up…" The optics of the tiny frame flickered, then on-lined completely. They were a bright turquoise blue. "Pick her up. Rub her joints to get the lubricant flowing."

Fury reached down for the little femme and gingerly picked her up. The sparkling trilled quietly and blinked up at the larger femme that held her. Fury rubbed her head thoughtfully, eliciting a contented purr. She continued to massage, moving downward; shoulders, elbows, wings, hips, knees, ankles.

The sparkling watched her femme creator's progress with attentive optics and flexed her wings instinctively as the lubricant lines started dripping fluid onto her joints. The hands that held her were warm and she leaned into the touches and nuzzled into the safe palms.

"I programmed her frame with basic linguistics. She knows all of what's being said, but only understands the bare minimum. You'll be able to teach her different concepts, but go slowly. At this age, her processor is taking in every little detail of what she sees and experiences and it's categorizing it and filing it away. Her retention will be superb, but the sheer amount of data being absorbed will really wear her out."

The sparkling only caught snippets of what the big red femme was saying, and it didn't really make any sense to her, but that didn't matter. Her femme creator was rubbing her head and wings gently. She purred and chirped unconsciously and felt her head flopping forward every few astroseconds. When it did, she trilled and sat back up, only to have it fall forward again. She blew air out of her vents and readjusted herself, curling into a little ball against her femme creator's chest.

"See, she's already starting to fall into recharge."

_Recharge_. The little femme knew that word. She glanced up through half-closed and unfocused optics at the femme that wasn't her creator and chirred in recognition.

"So she understands that?" Fury asked, running her fingers up the edge of her sparkling's wings.

Lifeline nodded. "Just the basics. Recharge, energon, wash, most pronouns; she, her, him, he. Other things like yes, no, follow…" she was interrupted by the sparkling's furious chirping. "And she's responding, obviously."

Fury shushed her little one and went back to rubbing her head.

"Will you be able to fit her inside you if you drive back?"

"No."

"Then you're going to have to take the shuttle."

"Primus, not the shuttle… What do I do about all this?" Fury motioned to the energon she was covered in from purging.

"Go wash off." Lifeline pointed toward the back of the room at a door Fury hadn't noticed before. "Small wash racks through there. I'll hold onto her," meaning the sparkling, "and run a few protocol tests while you clean up, then, once she's good to go, you can take her home."

Fury nodded, but didn't release the tiny sparkling from her arms. "Will she be okay if I leave?"

"You're not leaving. You're going to the wash racks right over there. You can even leave the door open."

"Will she be okay?"

"She'll cry for you a little, but after a while, she'll be fine. Just go get cleaned up."

Reluctantly, Fury relinquished the little femme and turned away to go to the wash racks.

Lifeline picked up on the hesitation. "So are you still thinking about giving her up to the Youth Sector?"

Fury looked back at the medic. "No. I think I'll keep her." She faced Lifeline and leaned against the doorframe. "You knew I'd keep her, didn't you?"

Lifeline smiled. "Just a hunch." She rubbed the sparkling's head. "Was it when she looked up at you for the first time and you saw all the love and trust in those big optics?"

"Quit it," Fury mock-growled, rolling her optics and entering the wash racks. She adjusted the settings on the shower before turning it on. From the main room, she heard Lifeline soothing the sparkling.

"She's right through there, little one. See? See her? She's right there." The sparkling quieted briefly, then began to whimper again. Lifeline sighed. "Do you know your femme creator's name?"

Whining.

"Can you say 'Fury'?"

The sparkling quietly mumbled the correct series of chirps and whistles to form her femme creator's name. Some of the whistles were too short, and in some places, she gave one too many chirps, so some of the phonetics were questionable, but all in all, the sounds were clear enough to be recognized.

"Good job."

Fury smiled and began to wash herself. The energon spatter was relatively new, so it came off easily. Lifeline had known she was going to end up keeping the sparkling. And, in a way, Fury had known too. It was when she started talking to it. When she saw it as something other than just a foreign parasite residing within her spark. When she had started getting protective of it. When she had started defending it. When she'd convinced herself that it wasn't a divine punishment after all, but something completely natural. Well, maybe not _completely_ natural, but…

"…not going to feed you. Fury will feed you once she's done washing herself off. Hm? …Yes, wash. No, you can't go in there with her, your frame is too fragile, but she'll be done soon."

"Why aren't you going to feed her?"

"Because you need to learn how," Lifeline answered.

Fury turned off the shower and walked through the steam to the towels. Wrapping one around the majority of her frame, she returned to the main room and stood by the berth. The sparkling trilled and wiggled toward her, still stretching her tiny wings. She picked her up, smiling when she felt a little head nuzzling into her arm.

"She has several mannerisms of Seeker sparklings. As a species, we're social, but Seekers, specifically, tend to form tight, loyal groups—"

"Trines?"

"Yes, that's part of it, but their family units in general are usually very close. Her separation anxiety will be notably stronger and she will be very territorial. Mostly regarding you. Are there any other sparklings in your building?"

"A few."

"It's not very likely that she'll do this, but she might get into fights with the other little ones."

"Over what?"

Lifeline sighed and shrugged. "Whatever they can find to fight over. Sparklings just want to assert their independence and dominance…and Seekers are the worst. So, just keep an optic on her. If it looks like a fight's about to break out, just pick her up and keep her away from the others for a while."

Fury looked down at the tiny scrap dozing comfortably in her arms. She didn't look like she'd be causing any fights.

"Alright, she needs to be fed." Lifeline pulled a small cube of dull medical grade energon out of a cooled unit, along with a thin tube. "One end of this tube connects to the cube, and the other end connects directly to her tanks. That opening is right under this plate here…" The sparkling chattered her protest at being displaced from the warmth of her femme creator's arms and kicked at Lifeline while the medic pointed to a small valve underneath one of her primary abdominal plates. "The other valve on the cube connects to this pump," she held up the piece of machinery after putting the Seekerlet back down on Fury's chest. "This pump will slowly transfer the energon from the cube to her tanks." The sparkling chattered again as Lifeline demonstrated. Once everything was connected, the medic flipped the switch on the pump. A quiet gurgling filled the room. "Hold her still while you're feeding her. Put her in front of a window or something. Anything that will hold her attention. If she squirms, she could dislodge the tube and while it's easy to reconnect, it could make a mess if it spills on the floor."

"Is this grade the only one she can have?" Fury sat on the edge of the berth and pointed to the purple liquid slowly draining from the cube.

"Right now, yes. Her tanks are too…new, really, to handle anything stronger. I'll send some with you."

Fury nodded her thanks.

"How's the search for a job going?"

"Eh…it's not."

"You'd better start looking. Unless you want to be out on the streets trying to scrape together enough credits to support _both_ of you…"

"That was exactly my fear when I lost the job," the new creator muttered. She fell silent and watched her sparkling inspect the tube she was connected to. "Although, I do have 1000 credits coming my way…"

"From?"

"My neighbor. She bet that I couldn't go three orns without jumping into someone else's berth after I delivered her." She nodded at the sparkling. "It's going to be hard, but I am determined to get those credits."

Lifeline chuckled and shook her head.

The sparkling cocked her head and chirped out an uncertain, "…credits…?"

"Credits. The things we use to pay for this." Fury tapped the almost empty cube of dull violet energon.

"Credits," the sparkling repeated, going back to watching the energon slide through the tube.

"How much is she able to say?"

"Only a few words at a time. Nothing too long. No complex sentences. Enough to let you know when she's cold, or scared, or hungry, or tired, or needs to flush her tanks. Little things like that."

"Will she recharge with me?"

Lifeline was quiet, then laughed. "You really don't know anything about sparklings, do you?"

Fury shrugged.

"Do you _want_ her to recharge with you? If not, then you'll be frequently be woken by her crying. If you put her in your berth with you, she won't make a sound the entire night."

"So I guess that means she'll be recharging with me."

"It's up to you; I was just listing your options."

"Subliminal messaging is what you were doing," Fury corrected.

Lifeline shrugged. "When mine was a sparkling, he recharged with us. Kept him quiet and he was right there with us in case anything happened."

"Done!" the sparkling exclaimed, bouncing slightly on her hands and knees, then patting the empty cube. "Done, done, done."

Fury gently disconnected the feeding tube, which must have tickled, because the little Seekerlet dissolved into a fit of giggles that left her crying runny purple tears. Fury just gave her a weird look, which caused more laughter. Fury handed the supplies to Lifeline, who packed them into a small box.

"They get this way after they're fed," she explained, noting the confused look on the dark femme's face. "It won't last long. It's a minor energy high. Here, these supplies will go with you. There's enough there for a few orns. Should last you until you get those 1000 credits you were betting on."

"Credits!" the sparkling trilled, waving her little aft around in the air like she was about to pounce. She did launch herself at Fury's leg and managed to hold on and clamber into her femme creator's lap. "Where home? Where home?"

"We'll go home soon, little one," Fury assured, patting the tiny femme on the head and removing her from her lap before standing up and unwrapping the towel she had put around herself. The sparkling pouted as her femme creator hung up the towel in the wash racks. "One last thing, Lifeline." Fury re-emerged. "About the tank flushing…"

"Figured you'd ask. At first, she won't be able to do it by herself. There's an override trigger on the inside of her thigh. All you have to do is put some pressure on it and the valves on her holding tanks will open. Anything her systems consider to be waste will be stored in there, and will, consequently, come out when you activate the override. Make sure you're near a drain. And, just a warning, she won't like it."

Fury stood there, silently, cycling air through her frame. "You know this is a lot for me to handle."

"The tank flushing, or the whole thing?" Lifeline teased.

Fury rolled her optics. "The whole thing."

"I know. It was for my mate and me too, at first. After a while, you get used to having them around, and then…you don't want them to leave. But they do. They have to become independent and start their own lives eventually. So, while she may seem like a burden at times…you won't have her for as long as you think, and once she's gone…you'll miss her."

The sparkling whined and wobbled her way across the berth toward her femme creator, sensing that the larger femme needed to be comforted. When she reached Fury, she put one tiny hand on the dark-plated leg and blinked up at her creator. "You need go home…" she said, patting Fury's leg.

Fury sighed. "I know. We'll go soon." She took the little hand in her own and gave it a light squeeze, then nodded to the box Lifeline had packed. "Is that everything we'll need?"

"It should be. If there's anything you don't have, give me a call." The medic picked up the box and handed it to Fury, who let go of her sparkling's hand to take it.

"Raindance told me that you didn't want Starscream to be notified about this. Is that correct?"

"Yes…yeah. At least, not while she's still young. So…just, don't mention anything. Too many people know already…"

"I won't tell a spark. Not even my family."

"Thank you, Lifeline. Honestly. You've been a good friend…"

"Spare me," the red femme muttered, waving her hand to dismiss the praise. "I don't need your gratitude, just go home and play with your sparkling."

Fury smiled down at the Seekerlet looking up at her expectantly.

"Home now?"

"Yes, we're going home now. Come here." She picked up the tiny femme by her waist and settled her on top of the box containing the feeding supplies. "How do you like that spot, hm?"

The sparkling giggled her approval and peered over the edge of the box at the floor far below her. Her wings flared involuntarily, balancing her before she fell over, and preparing her for a glide if she _did_ fall. After surveying her perch, she sat back and chirped self-importantly. "Home now."

"Okay, home we go," Fury assented, starting toward the door that would lead her back through the hallway to the lobby.

"Call if you need anything, remember," were Lifeline's parting words.

"Bye!" the sparkling chirped, turning around to wave furiously. She crowed with delight when the medic waved back.

Fury smiled and pushed open the front door. It was late morning by this time, the sun was hanging lax in the sky, not really interested in giving much light to its distant planet. Clouds obscured most of the taller buildings lining the streets and the faint smell of impending acid rain tickled the back of Fury's throat.

The sparkling had fallen silent. Her little optics were wide to the point of popping out and she gripped the edge of the box with as much strength as her tiny hands could muster. Her head whipped around to look at one thing after another, and occasionally, she stared upward at the sky as jets shot down the airways high above their heads. "Want to!" she screeched, pointing at a cluster of fliers that were a little lower in the sky.

"You're too young to fly, sweetspark," Fury tried to explain.

The sparkling would have none of it. "Want to, want to, want to!" She flexed her wings and rose to her hands and knees.

Fury sighed. "You'll fall flat on your face if you try."

"Want to…" she murmured, rising to her feet, wavering.

Fury held the box steady and sighed again. "Fine. Try it. You want to fall and hurt yourself, go right ahead."

This seemed to make the Seekerlet hesitate. "Nevermind…" She sat back down and pouted a little before pointing down the street.

Fury looked where her creation was pointing and saw the shuttle approaching.

"What that?"

"That's what will take us home. It's the shuttle."

"Shuttle," the sparkling repeated, mulling it over.

The large vehicle hissed to a stop next to the pedestrian walkway beside the road where Fury stood.

"What we do?"

"We get inside," Fury explained, stepping in when the doors opened. Thank Primus there weren't many other commuters on the transport. But the few that were noticed the tiny dark gray scrap that sat on top of the box in Fury's arms. They allowed her to sit down before they came over, but once she was sitting, they crowded.

"Is she yours?"

"Who's her mech creator?"

"Look, she has wings!"

"Are you the femme that recharged with Starscream?"

Fury growled and waved them away. They backed off a little, but still crooned nonsense at the sparkling, who, unlike her femme creator, loved the attention. She was chirping and twittering and grinning and laughing and allowed some of her admirers to pat her head. She was totally oblivious to the invasive questions being directed at Fury, but did pick up on the discomfort that the adult femme was exuding. Once or twice she turned around and nuzzled her creator, just for reassurance, before basking in the newfound attention she was getting. They were all so colorful! Reds and blues and yellows and greens in all different shades and patterns…

"She's beautiful, Fury," a lavender femme murmured.

"Thanks."

"She'll get lots of attention from interested mechs when she gets older."

"Mm…let's not think about that right now," Fury said with a wince, half-joking, and half remembering the "attention" that the little sparkling was a product of. "And could you keep this on the down-low? I don't want Screamer to find out he sired a sparkling. At least, not right now."

The lavender femme nodded. "Of course."

Fury managed a taut smile as the purple bot went back to bothering her sparkling. If Starscream found out about this sparkling…well, honestly, she didn't know _what_ would happen, but nothing good could come out of it. It was improbable to think that he _wouldn't_ find out…the little femme looked too much like him, acted like a Seeker sparkling, even acted like her mech creator, to a degree; she held her shoulders back and puffed her chest out like she was the most important thing in the world, even though she was just one in about ten thousand other sparklings that had come online today. She wasn't really that special.

After a few breems, the novelty of the sparkling died down and she was largely left alone as bots got off at their destinations. New waves saw her and came over, but she loved the attention. Fury just stared out the window and watched the city speed past her. She wanted to go home and recharge. For a few orns, if possible. This shuttle ride was bad enough, but back at the apartment, she'd have to go through Sunstrike and a few others who thought everything anyone did was their business as well.

When the shuttle reached their stop, Fury gathered up her box and her sparkling and pushed her way through the mass of frames entering as she left. The door to her apartment was unlocked, as she'd forgotten to lock it on her way out this morning, on her mad rush to the clinic to deliver her sparkling. She walked in and shut the door behind her and turned on a few lights before setting the box of feeding supplies down on the table in the main room next to the energon dispenser.

The sparkling was quiet as she climbed down and stood at the edge of the table to take in her surroundings. "This home?"

"This is home."

The Seekerlet raised her arms and looked at her femme creator. "Up."

Fury scooped up the little femme and nuzzled her. "Where do you want to go?"

The sparkling shrugged and shook her head.

"You want a tour?"

"What that?"

"I show you each room and tell you a little about it. You want to do that?"

"Yeah. How say—too-er?"

"Tour."

"Tore?"

"Tour…"

The sparkling shook her head and made a frustrated noise. "Can't."

"That's okay. At your age, there were a lot of things I couldn't say either."

"My age? You?"

Fury swallowed the urge to laugh. "Yeah, I was your age, once. Everyone is. Then they grow up."

"Everyone?"

"To be an adult, you have to be a sparkling first."

"Sparkling," the little Seeker pointed at herself, then at Fury, and shook her head.

"You're a sparkling, yes. I'm not."

Content with the explanation, the sparkling patted Fury's arm. "Show home."

"Alright, the room we're in now is the main room. It's where we get our energon," she pointed to the dispenser nearby, "and play and read, and talk to people."

She took a few steps toward the front door and took a right. "This is a closet. It's where I keep things that I might use later, but that I'm not using now."

Back out into the main room and to the left, through a door. "And this…is our room! That's my berth. Where I recharge, and that's a table, and a lamp, and a window…and a mirror. Look at this. Look. That's you! See?"

"That me?" the sparkling reached out to the shiny panel and touched it. "I'm me! That not me! Me out here."

This time, Fury did laugh. "No. It's not _you_, it's a reflection of you."

"Reflek…what?"

"Reflection. It…has to do with light. I'll try to explain it to you later."

The sparkling's gaze lingered a while longer on her image in the mirror before she frowned and looked around the room. "Down." She pointed at the berth. She was placed gently on the flat metal surface and sat there for a moment, fluttering her wings, then half-walked, half-tripped to the side table and climbed across it to sit in the window.

"You like your home?"

The sparkling nodded, still looking out the window. "Just us?"

"Yeah, just us."

"In all of it?" she turned around and raised her arms in a gesture meant to encompass the whole building.

"No. Just in this apartment. In the whole building, there are lots of other bots."

"Want to see." She carefully climbed down from the window and slid onto the berth. "Where?"

"Let's not go see them right now, okay? I'll introduce you when we go down to the wash racks in a few orns."

"Why?"

"I don't want to bother them." Truthfully, she didn't want to _see_ them right now. They would ask too many questions. She needed some time to get used to her sparkling and the sparkling needed to get used to…everything. "And, while I know you're curious, Lifeline said I needed to take it easy on you because too much new stuff in one day would wear you out."

"I won't wear out…" the sparkling protested, not even really understanding what she was saying.

"That's not your decision to make, little one. I'm your femme creator. Can you stay in here and play for the next couple orns?"

Reluctantly, the Seekerlet nodded and crawled back into the window to watch the bustle of city life outside.

Fury laid down on her berth and shuttered her optics, ready to recharge for a few joors.

There were a few breems of blissful silence and white noise from the road, only broken by the occasional honk of a horn.

"Who Starskeem?" the sparkling piped just as Fury was engaging her recharge subroutines.

The question made her tense. "He's…your mech creator, little one."

"Like you? You my femme creator."

"Yeah…Starscream and I are your creators."

"Why he not home?"

"He doesn't live here."

"Why?"

"Because he doesn't work nearby."

"Where he live?"

"He lives a long way away from here."

"Will he come see me?"

Fury had no idea what to say. The sparkling didn't know that her creators hated each other. She didn't know that Starscream had no idea she even _existed_. She wouldn't understand if Fury told her that he wouldn't come to see her. Ever. She finally settled on, "No, not right now. He's very busy."

"Okay. He see you?"

"Not very often."

"What he like?"

"He's a Seeker, like you—"

At this, the sparkling crinkled her olfactory sensor. "What that?"

"A Seeker? It means you were created to be a jet. It's in your coding. It's why you have wings, even without an alt mode."

"Alt…mode…"

Fury sighed. So many questions. Lifeline was right when she said _basic_. The little scrap didn't even know what an alt mode was. _Only one of the most important factors of Cybertronian life_, Fury scoffed internally. Maybe downloading some common knowledge and terms into that curious little processor wouldn't hurt. "I'll show you my alt mode later." She turned over and shuttered her optics again. Hopefully, Starscream had been forgotten for now…

No such luck. "Starskeem fly?"

"Yes. He can fly," she ground out through clenched dental plates. _Flew off and left me with his damn sparkling._

"I want fly."

"I already told you, you can't yet."

"Why?"

"You're too young and you don't have an alt mode." Fury's already limited supply of patience was wearing thin. She was going to keep the sparkling, but she was tired and didn't want to answer any more questions.

"I get one!" the sparkling retorted, stomping her tiny foot on the windowsill.

Fury got up on her elbows and glared at the little femme standing defiantly in front of her. "Try it. Do whatever you want, just let me get some recharge, please."

The sparkling seemed to contemplate this for a while, then huffed rebelliously. Do whatever she wanted? She would do just that.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I know the energon changed color between chapter one and chapter two. If there are any picky readers out there who caught that and were slightly-to-majorly bothered by it…never fear! There is an explanation here. It's the grade. In chapter one, Fury was drinking (a lot) of high grade. It's blue. So, when she purged all over Screamer, it was blue. In chapter two, she's been drinking low-grade because of the sparkling, so when she purges, it's orange. She's been purging an awful lot, hasn't she? Poor femme. And in this chapter, Lifeline uses a very low medical grade, which is purple. Anyway, since no one can seem to agree on what color energon should be (orange, blue, purple, pink…) I decided to use all of them! Huzzah!


	4. Discovery

**A/N: **Happy February, everyone!I'm sorry that this chapter took a little longer than the first three, but my great-uncle died and mom had to fly out to California for the funeral and I had to stay with my best friend's family for a week and then there's been homework and ACT practice and scholarships…it's been hectic. Hopefully, this will make up for the wait.

So many heartfelt thank you's to **anonybot**, **KaiH**, **empty void** and **Farky-Fark and the Munky Bunch **for reviewing chapter 3 and thank you to **COLORLESS . LYFE** and **KaiH** for adding this story to their alerts list, and again, thanks to **KaiH** for adding me to their favorite authors list and adding this story to their favorites.

I'll go ahead and reply to **empty void** here, since that review was anonymous and I can't converse via PM: It's awesome to hear that you love this. There aren't many reviews now, but it takes some time. You and every other person who reviewed have been absolutely great. You guys are the reason I write. I love all of you.

To those of you that said you couldn't wait for the next chapter…here it is!

**Disclaimer:** Don't own. Never will.  
>And the geographical details of the market districts are again, thanks to <strong>Hearts of Eternity<strong> who can come up with great details about culture and general life.

Half of this chapter is from the sparkling's point of view, so bear with me during the descriptions. There are still things about the world that she doesn't understand, descriptions are pretty straightforward, and some of her thoughts are strange. I hope it doesn't mess you up too much. :P Things are about to get interesting (and sometimes a little redundant, sorry)…

Also, a mechaklik is a unit of measurement I made up. It's roughly equivalent to a mile. Or kilometer, if that's what you use.

Show the love, my friends! Read, review, and enjoy!

* * *

><p>She sat in the window until she knew her femme creator was deep in recharge. Slow, loud, drags of air were being cycled through Fury's frame, then huffed out of her vents in something similar to a sigh. The sparkling climbed out of the window and slid to the berth, careful to not disturb the adult femme. She looked over the edge and twittered nervously. It was a lot taller from here. It hadn't been so tall when Fury had been holding her. But she was a Seeker. She was created to fly…<p>

She leaned forward and tried to gauge the distance. Her young targeting system told her that the ground was three kliks away…three wasn't a very big number. It couldn't be that bad. She scooted closer and flared her little wings. She was created to fly. She could fly. She pushed off from the berth. Her wings did what they were supposed to…but only for an astrosecond. She glided…then fell. The floor came up quickly and she hit it front first. Her breath was knocked out of her, along with a small squeak. She lay there stunned, until her intake fans started whirring again and cool air filtered through her frame and she was able to get back on her feet.

She wandered through the apartment, dazed and disappointed. Why couldn't she fly? She was supposed to fly. It took her a few breems to cross the floor of the main room and end up in front of the door. Everything was big. The room was big, the table was big, the doors were big, the berth was big, Fury was big. And she was small. She whimpered and looked up at the door. She wanted to go see the other bots living in the building. They would be nice and wouldn't keep her locked up.

She just had to get past the door. She pushed on it, but it didn't open. It didn't open when she got close to it either, like the doors of the shuttle had when Fury walked toward them. She gave a frustrated chirp and looked around. Higher up, there was a blueish box with a little red light on it. It was out of her reach now, but if she got up on the table…

Even the table was too high for her to reach. But from the countertop… She had to find something to climb on. Nothing was lying around on the floor that she could stack. She sat in the middle of the floor for a breem or two, cycling back through the information she'd learned. The closet. It was where Fury kept things that she wasn't using now but might use later. Maybe there were some little things in the closet. She scurried over to the doorway and crawled inside. There were lots of little boxes and cubes and flat things she could stack and use to climb onto the counter.

She grabbed a few and lugged them back out into the big room and stacked them on the floor under the counter. Trip after trip, the tower grew taller and taller until it was just below the rim of the metal that came out of the wall. She scrambled to the top and leapt onto the counter gleefully, trilling to herself in satisfaction.

Across the counter to the table. The little blue box beside the door was within her reach. Only she had no idea what to do with it. It had all sorts of smaller pieces of metal on it, inscribed with strange markings that she didn't understand. She pushed one. Then another. Nothing happened. The little light stayed red. She continued to push the smaller metal pieces, sometimes making patterns, sometimes just pushing the ones that had the prettiest markings on them.

Her chronometer told her that it had been about a joor. That didn't have any meaning. She was starting to feel a little tired, but she was determined to get out of this apartment. She kept pressing the little metal things. They made a funny little clicking noise when she poked them. Suddenly, the light turned green and the door swept open. The sparkling looked at her finger, looked at the box, looked at the door, back at her finger…in a flash, she was on the counter, down the tower of stacked boxes, on the floor, and out of the apartment.

The long space outside was darker than her home, but only by a little bit. More doors lined the long room and light shone out from under some of them. Keeping one hand on the wall, she walked farther from her home and toward the next door. There was a little bit of light coming out from under this one and she heard low adult voices from the other side. She trilled and lay flat on her front, wiggling her fingers under the door. At first, nothing happened, then the voices stopped; there was a sound of something scraping against the floor, and the voices got louder.

"What _is_ that?" That voice sounded a little like Fury's.

"I don't know." That voice was a little deeper.

"Well, open the door."

Footsteps neared and the door slid open to reveal two adult bots. The sparkling squealed and jumped back to avoid being stepped on.

"Hey there, little one…" The big one with the deep voice reached down and picked her up. "What are you doing?"

"Whatever I want," the sparkling replied self-assuredly.

The one that held her laughed deeply. "You have an attitude, don't you? Where's your femme creator?"

"Recharging. She tired."

"And you left?"

"She say I do whatever I want."

The other adult, the smaller orange and yellow one, made a funny cough noise and said, "She's Fury's sparkling."

"Fury my femme creator!" the Seekerlet exclaimed, flinging her hands into the air above her head.

"I know, little one," the orange bot said, sighing.

"So she's Screamer's sparkling too?" the big one asked, voice lowering.

"She can still hear you, you half-bit. Yes, she's Screamer's sparkling. Can't you tell by looking at her?"

"I guess she looks like him…"

"She _does_ look like him. Give her to me. Come here, sweetspark…" she was transferred to the orange bot's open arms. "How did you get out of your apartment?"

"Climb up and push flat things and the light went green and I get down and walk outside."

The big one laughed. "She's smart."

"She's a troublemaker."

"Fury say I do whatever I want!" the sparkling repeated adamantly, determined to get her point across.

"Fury doesn't know how to handle you," the orange femme said, still in the same sweet voice she used whenever she was speaking to the sparkling. "She's never had a sparkling before and doesn't know the first thing about raising one."

The big one cleared his vents. "Erm, Sunstrike, you don't have any experience either… we've never had a sparkling."

The orange femme called Sunstrike rolled her optics. "But I've taken care of them before. I know what to do."

"Fury tell me—"

"We know what Fury told you. How would you like to stay with us until Fury wakes up?"

The sparkling shifted around a little uncomfortably. "I do that?"

"Sure you can do that… My sister will play with you a little. You want to do that?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Down you go." She was placed onto a low table in the middle of the room.

The apartment looked almost exactly like Fury's, but the table was in the wrong place and the rooms were backwards from where they were in her home.

The two bigger bots by the door started talking to each other, but their voices were quieter than they had been.

"What are you doing? Just go give her back. Fury's apartment is three steps away."

"We'll keep her until Fury notices she's gone. Primus only knows how long that could be."

"Are you trying to get the little thing moved to a Youth Sector? You can't frame Fury for neglect! The sparkling figured out a way to get out on her own!"

"I'm not trying to _frame_ Fury… If we go put the sparkling back in there, she'll just get out again."

"She's curious."

"Yes, but did you hear what she said Fury told her to do? "Whatever you want." What creator tells her sparkling to do whatever it wants!"

"Fury's inexperienced. She just needs to learn. And besides, we don't know if what the sparkling said she told her to do is true."

"At her age—" a bright orange finger was jabbed in the sparkling's direction. "She's impressionable. She looks up to her creators. Whatever Fury said is what she said."

"This isn't your sparkling. You don't have any say in how she should be raised."

"Fury is not an experienced creator! You said so yourself. She's addicted to interface and high grade, she always has a hangover, she's rarely at home…how will _she_ be raising that sparkling?"

"That's none of your business, Sunstrike. She's not your sparkling, for the fourth time. And if you want one of your own, let's get on it. We can go back to our room right now and conceive a sparkling."

"That's not what this is about."

"Then what _is_ this about?"

"Fury is an unfit creator!"

There was a thump against the wall, followed by a muffled "Shut up… I'm trying to recharge…"

"See! That proves my point! She's recharging and doesn't even know her sparkling is gone!"

"Then by Primus, go over there, wake her up, and tell her! Don't keep arguing with me, because all it's doing is going around in circles!"

"I'm not going to try to take her sparkling away from her."

"It sure _sounds_ like that's what you're trying to do! And if you won't do anything about it, then stop talking! She's not your sparkling, and you have no idea how Fury is going to change now that she _has_ this sparkling, so either bring this up with her, and help her with her problems, or get out of their life!"

"I _am_ trying to help."

"Not Fury! If you were trying to help Fury, you'd see her through her drinking binges, maybe take her to a recovery group. You're trying to help the sparkling. By taking her away from her femme creator. If you truly want what's best for both of them, you'd help Fury and then let the sparkling be raised by her own creator."

"I just think—"

"I don't care what you think. I swear, sometimes I don't know why I bonded with you…"

The orange one was quiet and turned away from the other one and cycled air deeply. "I just want her to be raised in a safe, healthy environment—"

"Sun, listen to me. Look at me. You're a compassionate femme. But sometimes—most times—you take it too far. You intrude. Compassion is great. Nosiness is not. That little femme is Fury's sparkling and how she is raised is not up to you. There are countless situations that are worse than this, and I thank Primus that you don't live next door to them, because you would either end up in a very complicated and dangerous situation, or you would end up dead. If Fury is deemed unfit, then it's the authorities' job to take care of the sparkling."

Sunstrike sighed and turned back to look at the little Seeker, who was none the wiser regarding anything that just happened. She wondered when someone was going to play with her.

"You're right. I…"

"Just let things work themselves out. If Fury doesn't change, get her some help. But right now, play with that poor sparkling."

* * *

><p>Fury frowned and hit the wall. Sunstrike and her mate were talking rather loudly and it was keeping her online. "Shut up…" she called half-sparkedly. "I'm trying to recharge…"<p>

The talking didn't stop. In fact, it got louder.

Fury groaned and rolled over. Why the frag was she so tired anyway…right. She'd just delivered a sparkling a few joors earlier. A sparkling. A sparkling that looked like Starscream. A sparkling that had thrown a minor temper tantrum in the window…where was the little thing, anyway?

"Sweetspark…?" she called weakly out into the apartment. "Where are you…?" she pulled herself out of her berth and shuffled through her small living quarters. The door was unlocked. And there were a bunch of boxes stacked under the counter.

She cursed and hit her forehead with her palm. "I'm such a half-bit…" What the Pit was she thinking, telling a sparkling to do whatever she wanted? Of course she _would_. And she _had_. She'd escaped. No, escaped was the wrong word. She hadn't been detained. Left. She'd left. She was somewhere in the housing complex, exploring her little spark out…

Fury rolled her optics and headed into the hallway.

"…poor sparkling." That was Sunstrike's mate. The door to their apartment was open. She peered in and saw Sunstrike kneeling in front of the low table in their main room. On the table was…her sparkling.

Fury breathed a sigh of relief. "There you are, little one. Why did you—"

"What the frag were you thinking telling your sparkling to do whatever she wanted?" Sunstrike whipped around, optics flashing dangerously.

Fury held up her hands out of reflex. "I was just asking myself that same question…I was tired…"

"Have you been drinking?"

"What? No. I haven't had high grade since the night she was conceived… Can I just take her back to my—"

"Are you sure that you are the best person to be raising her?"

"Excuse me? Yes. I think I am. I'm her creator and—"

"You have problems, Fury—"

"Sunstrike!" her mate barked. "I said this isn't any of your business!"

"Problems? What problems!"

"You know what's wrong with you."

"And when did you start caring?" Fury demanded, letting her temper flare. "When my actions could impact someone other than myself? It's always been derisive teasing with you, but as soon as I have a sparkling, you think you can jump in and tell me how to live my life!" She jabbed her finger into the orange femme's chest. "You know, I've never liked you very much. You're disrespectful and you think everyone wants to listen to what you have to say! It's not true. I've never given a slag in regards to your advice and I'm sure not going to start now! So give me my damn sparkling and frag off!"

"If she picks up that kind of attitude from you, she'd be better off with Starscream."

It took all the restraint Fury had to keep her from launching herself at the orange femme and pounding her face in for even _suggesting_ that option. Once she'd composed herself enough to speak, her words came out as a dangerous whisper. "She already _has _an attitude. And guess where she gets it. From _him_. You don't honestly believe that he would be a better creator than me. You don't know him. You don't know what he's like."

"Neither do you. You know nothing about him aside from how he likes to interface."

"He wouldn't care if he had to take her. He would set her down somewhere and forget about her while he did his "important research." He wouldn't know what the frag to do with her!" she snorted. "He doesn't even know she exists!" She pushed the smaller femme aside, scooped her sparkling off the table, and stormed back to her apartment.

Once the door shut behind her, she slumped against it and sank to the floor, clutching her sparkling more tightly than was necessary. Despite how hard as she tried to stop them, hot tears spilled down her cheeks. The sparkling wiggled out of her arms and climbed onto her shoulder, chirping quietly and nuzzling against her in reassurance. It only made her cry harder.

"What wrong…?"

"Sunstrike's trying to take you away from me," Fury sobbed. "She's never given a damn about anything I do and as soon as you're created…she thinks she's my femme creator."

"She your femme creator?"

"No. No. She thinks she is. She's trying to tell me what to do."

"I in trouble?"

"No, sweetspark. No. You're not in trouble. No one's in trouble." _Except Sunstrike._

"She angry?"

"Yes. And she shouldn't be. She thinks I can't take care of you."

"Why?"

Fury let out a shaky sigh. "I have some pretty big issues, little one. She thinks they'll get in the way of raising you correctly."

"I like you… No want leave."

"I like you too. I'm not going to give you up. I wouldn't give you up if my life depended on it. I made up my mind on that a long time ago. I'll raise you as good as I can, okay? Sunstrike won't bother us. You're my sparkling. Not hers."

"You my femme creator." The Seekerlet nuzzled her tiny head into the crook of Fury's neck.

"Yes. I am."

"You tired?"

Fury sighed. "A little, still. What about you?"

The sparkling nodded. "Recharge."

"Okay. Let's go." Fury pulled herself to her feet and walked back to her berth. "Now don't run off again. We'll explore tomorrow."

"Why she say I go to Starskeem?"

"She didn't know what she was talking about. She doesn't know your mech creator."

"She say _you_ no know him."

"She needs to shut up sometimes," Fury growled, lying down and settling the sparkling beside her. Now wasn't the time to explain the specifics of her relationship with Starscream to her sparkling. She doubted the little femme would even understand half the words she used, let alone the concept of a one-night stand.

The Seekerlet snuggled against Fury's chest, warming herself from the energy of her femme creator's spark.

"Why did you leave the apartment, anyway, little one?"

"You say I do whatever I want. I want see the other bots here."

"How did you unlock the door?"

The sparkling cocked her head.

Fury tried a different approach. "How did you make the light turn green on the little box up there by the door?"

"Push pretty lines." The sparkling poked the air in front of Fury's face to demonstrate. "Light go green."

"Those are called buttons. The little things you pushed. Buttons."

"But…tons… Buttons. What the pretty lines name?"

"Pretty lines…" What did she mean? The numbers. The numbers on the keypad. "Oh! Pretty lines. Those are called glyphs. It's writing. The ones on the little box, on the buttons, are called numbers."

"Glyphs. Buttons. Numbers," the sparkling repeated. "Glyphs, buttons, numbers. Glyphs, butt…aah—" she yawned, "buttons, numbers."

"Get some recharge, little one. You've learned a lot for one orn."

* * *

><p>Fury was woken by warmth on her chassis. She blinked and looked around. It was 07 joors. The sun wasn't up yet. She adjusted her optics to see in the gray light and found a tiny dark bundle curled serenely on her chest. She smiled and reached up to pat the sparkling on the head.<p>

Who did Sunstrike think she was? Security Response? She had no right to be taking away this innocent little thing on the basis of an unfit home environment. Fury hadn't had even a drop of high grade after her rendezvous with Starscream and if the sparkling was always going to be as much trouble as she was yesterday, Fury doubted she have the _time_ to be bringing mechs home with her every night. She stopped using drugs a long time ago—well, she'd stopped using them _regularly_, at least, and just because she didn't currently hold a job didn't mean that she couldn't support her sparkling. Besides, Sunstrike was due to pay her 1000 credits in two orns.

Fury smiled again, this one being a little snarkier than the first. She couldn't wait to see her neighbor's face when she handed over those credits. "Revenge is a glitch," she muttered to herself, smirking happily.

The sparkling fidgeted upon hearing her femme creator's voice and trilled.

"You have a perfectly fine home environment, little one. I am determined to keep it that way."

The sparkling readjusted again and stretched, unshuttering her optics and smiling up at Fury, who couldn't help but grin back. "Did you recharge okay?"

The Seekerlet nodded and sat up with a yawn. "Hungry."

"It's early, sweetspark. Can you wait a little while?"

"How long?"

"Another joor."

"Yeah."

"Okay." Fury rolled over after moving her sparkling and opened the shutters on the window. The lights from the city were still shining in the dim morning light. Reds and blues and greens and yellows and purples and oranges. Every sort of sign and advertisement and streetlamp was still on, cutting through the mist, forming a hazy rainbow. Buildings towered like unwavering sentinels, throwing shadows across the streets.

The sparkling trilled and stared out the window at the cityscape. "Want to go outside," she breathed, putting one hand on the windowpane.

"Mm…it's a little misty out there right now. You need to learn early that dihydrogen monoxide is not very friendly to our frames."

"Please….?" She turned and looked back at Fury with big optics.

The adult femme sighed. "Fine… we can go outside. A morning walk will be good for you. Get some fresh air in your circulating systems." She pulled herself out of her berth and plucked her sparkling off the table. "Let's go."

Together, they went to the exterior door. Fury punched in the correct code and the door slid open. They were hit with a draft of chilly air laden with moisture. The sparkling squealed and ducked behind her femme creator's arm. "That cold!"

"I tried to warn you!" Fury exclaimed, shutting the door behind her. "But did you listen? No. Because you're a stubborn little thing. Like me." _And Starscream_.

"What stubborn?"

Fury cycled a deep intake of the cold, foggy air, thinking. "That's a hard one… It means that you don't do things even though someone tells you to, or…you do something because someone tells you _not_ to, although, I guess, that's more like rebellion…if you're stubborn, you don't change your mind very easily…" she sighed. "That's the best I can do right now. You need some downloads."

"Like you teaching. No want downloads."

"Aww…that's sweet, little one. But I'm new to this whole thing and I don't think I can come up with creative ways to explain some things to you." Besides, when the time came, she didn't want to explain interface. A download would be much better for that. Much _much_ better.

"What in those?" the sparkling chirped, pointing at a cluster of skyscrapers farther down the street.

"Offices. More apartments."

"More?" the sparkling sounded incredulous. "There more bots?"

"Oh yeah, sweetspark. There are millions of us on Cybertron."

"Millions? How big that?"

"Very big."

"How big?" the little femme insisted.

"I can't explain how big."

"Why?"

Fury shushed her. "I know you're curious, but there are some things that you just won't be able to understand right now…"

"But I want to."

"I know. And that's great. You're a sparkling, you're supposed to be curious."

"What curious?"

"Curious means you always want to know what's going on. You always want to learn."

The sparkling bobbed her head, satisfied with the explanation. "Why I can't fly?" she piped suddenly.

Fury hesitated a moment. "You don't have an alt mode. I already told you that." She eyed the innocuous little scrap in her hands. "You tried to fly, didn't you?"

"No work," the Seekerlet pouted.

"Because you don't really have wings," Fury sighed.

"I do!" she squealed, reaching around to her back to make sure that she did, in fact, have wings.

"Those are there to give you extra mass when you scan an alt mode. You can't fly with them yet."

As usual, the sparkling ignored the truth and pointed straight ahead of her. "Want fly there!"

Fury looked up to see what she was talking about. Before them, looming on the horizon, was a massive pillar. Even from thousands of mechakliks away, the huge structure still dominated the skyline. It was a piece of the planet itself, that jutted up for miles into the sky. Lights glittered across the whole thing and a web of multi-level roadways connected to it at various points, along with launch pads for the constant traffic of aerials coming and going. "That's the market district of Tyger Pax," Fury explained. "Where most of the shops and industrial warehouses are."

"Want go there."

"We have our own. But it goes down, instead of up. We will go, one of these orns, when I have a job again and can go there with a few credits to spend."

"Oh." The sparkling yawned. "Hungry. Go back now."

"It's hardly been more than a few breems!"

"Cold," the sparkling muttered, accentuating it with a small shiver. "Want go back."

"Okay…fine. We'll go back now." Fury turned around and started the walk back to her apartment. "So do you like where you live?"

"Yeah. Like you, like home…" she crinkled her little olfactory sensor. "No like bots in other home."

Fury chuckled quietly. "I don't either, little one. I don't either."

To be specific, she didn't really like _Sunstrike_ all that much, but when it came to her mate… Even though he was quiet, he didn't take slag from anyone who tried to push him around, including his own femme. And he was handsome. _Very_ handsome. Fury tried not to just stare at him when he came down to the wash racks, but damn, the mech was _fine_. She didn't know how Sunstrike managed to catch him. Sure, she could be charismatic, but once she got you wrapped around her finger…the mask came off and the glitch underneath all that flattery was released. Fury sighed. A mech like him really should have been with someone like her… She shook her head. She had to hold out for a few more orns. Besides, he was already bonded. She would just have to admire him from a distance.

"Alright, we're home now. I'll get you some energon and…" her sentence caught in her vocalizers and she stopped dead when the door opened. There, sitting in one of the chairs in the main room of her apartment, was the one mech she had vowed never to see again. He looked the same, if not more conceited than before. He sat tall, his wings flared behind him, with a smug look on his sharp-featured face.

She heard the door open again behind her because of her proximity to the sensor, but she didn't move. Suddenly, the weight of the sparkling she held seemed much heavier than before. "What the frag do you think you're doing here?" she seethed in a caustic whisper.

"I was told that I had a sparkling," Starscream replied.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Remember, if you don't review, I'll never know whether or not any of you 200-some visitors like this. Don't be afraid to critique. That's what I'm writing for! Improvement! Let me know your thoughts, your predictions, suggestions (seriously—your ideas might make it in here), and what could use some work, or what you really liked. There is nothing more beneficial to a writer than a great review. :)


	5. Namesake

**A/N:** An update! I finally figured out how to do this, thanks to my sister...so, you do get a chapter after all! You guys are in for a treat…this chapter is most intense, indeed. It took quite a while for me to get this chapter perfect. Lots of frustration and revision and crazy happenings in my life. And I'm still not completely satisfied, but tell me what you think. Sorry for the wait, but this one's by far the longest chapter, so I hope that makes up for the delay. *apologetic shrug*

A million million thank you's to the awesome reviewers of the last chapter: **Amkano, Farky-Fark and the Munky Bunch, Taboo22, Transformer diva, AmandalovesSideswipe, Misery's Prescription, FlorLove, transpokemonfan **(sort of reviewing all chapters at once)**, **and **anonybot**. I can not tell you how much I love you guys. My day gets better every time I re-read your comments.  
>More thanks to <strong>Just Another Random, Chibi Oro, greengirl011, Asphodel6, AmandalovesSideswipe, Brooke Witwicky- Transfan,<strong> and **Taboo22** for adding this story to their alerts lists, and thanks to **Blizzardstorm21, Transformer diva, Misery's Prescription, Decepticon Chick, The-Raving-Cheshire-Cat** and **AikiaJuniper** for adding this story as a favorite. *hugs everyone* You all have been so supportive and inspiring to me.  
>I hope this chapter pleases you! (Just to make things easier, I've been imagining Starscream as his TF Prime incarnation, if that helps, only, he has a better posture and the movieverse attention to detail is there, along with the voice we all know much too well… *covers ears*)<p>

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Transformers. If I did, though, I would've made the movies better.

Tell me what you think! Read, review, and enjoy!

* * *

><p>"Who told you?" Fury demanded, hate evident across her face.<p>

Starscream shrugged. "The message was anonymous." She knew who it was, he could tell by the snarl that curled across her mouthplates. "Though, naturally, being a scientist, a theory has to be verified before I believe it. I had to come down and see for myself. I don't see anything wrong with dropping by to see a theoretical sparkling."

"There are a couple things wrong about this," she hissed. "First, you can't just walk into my house and sit your shiny aft down and expect everything to be okay. Second, if you cared about this sparkling, you wouldn't have left in the first place, and third—"

He held up his hand. "In my defense—"

"Yeah, ain't it always."

"—you _told _me to leave. And I didn't know you had conceived. The circumstances under which we mated were…" he chuckled. "You were very drunk."

"And we're very incompatible," Fury spat. "Even if you'd known that I was going to have your sparkling, would you have stayed? No, don't answer that. Do tell me though, did you take a nosedive when our bond broke?"

"No. I had landed for a moment. Sorry to disappoint you. Now, that third reason of why this situation is "wrong"?"

"A sparkling is not a theory. It's a living, functioning creature."

"Ah. But I doubt the validity of anything until I have seen it myself. I'm not denying that the little thing is alive, although that in itself _is_ surprising, I'm simply in the habit of believing in solid evidence." He smirked, then focused on the tiny form nestled in his former consort's arms. "How old is it?"

"An orn."

"Only an orn?" He stood and took a step towards Fury and his sparkling. "It looks like me," he noted with satisfaction.

"Unfortunately," Fury remarked flatly.

"I don't see how my appearance is unfortunate," he sniffed, stopping a safe distance from the angry femme.

Fury just shook her head and muttered something that he couldn't understand.

He looked down at the sparkling. The little thing was staring up at him with clear, bright, turquoise optics. He stared back. It had his face, his wings, his long limbs. "Is it healthy?"

Fury sighed. "She, Screamer. Call _it_ a _she_."

Starscream raised an optic ridge. "She?"

"That's what I just said, isn't it?"

A femme. He had sired a femme. Well, at least she looked like him. Hopefully, when she got older, she would attract a good mate.

"And yeah, she's healthy. Considering the circumstances."

They both looked down at the tiny scrap.

"Out of common courtesy, I'd ask you if you wanted to hold her, but I don't feel like wasting my small amount of daily politeness on you."

Starscream didn't say anything. How could he have been so senseless as to _mate_ with this femme? Fury was bitter, petty, and disrespectful. He and she were nothing alike…besides the snarky attitudes…and the stubbornness…and—okay, so there were a _few_ things that they had in common, but he was still berating himself on how stupid he'd been to let his emotions get the better of him. Well, maybe not his emotions, but definitely his lust. And too much high grade. Although, technically, she'd been much more drunk than he had.

"Starskeem?"

He raised an optic ridge and shook himself out of his thoughts. "She knows me?"

"She's smarter than you'd think, for being an orn old."

Starscream almost made a comment about how she was his sparkling, so she _had _to be smart, but wisely kept silent. If Fury fought like she interfaced…he would leave her apartment needing medical attention. "What did you tell her about us?"

"You really want to know?"

"Would I ask if I didn't?"

Fury snorted. "With you, pit if I know. I told her that you'd never come to see her because you worked and lived a long way away." Then she added, "Not to mention that you didn't even know she existed."

"I assume you _didn't_ mention that last part," Starscream remarked, crossing his arms.

"Oh, no," Fury drawled, "of course not. Wouldn't want to give her a negative impression of you or anything."

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated."

"Your presence is similarly valued, Screamer. You show up in my apartment on the basis of "verifying a theory", you take what you get. If that happens to be me showcasing my extreme glitchiness, so be it."

"Hm," the Seeker drummed his claws against his arm. "For a second there, that sounded like playful teasing."

Fury snorted. "You had your only dose of playful on the night this sparkling was conceived. That's it."

"Saving it all for the other mechs you'll be with in the future?"

"Jealous?"

"Of you? Or the other mechs?"

"Either," the femme shot back with a smirk.

"Neither. One, I've already stooped to your level and would prefer not to do it again, and two, I have also had multiple lovers, and have everything I could ever want back in Iacon."

Fury chuckled and glanced at him out of the corner of her optic. "But you have to admit; those couple joors in the bar were good, weren't they?"

He met her gaze evenly. "If you had to go back and do it again, knowing the consequences, would you?"

This time, it was Fury who stayed silent.

"Starskeem…?"

Again, they both looked down at the sparkling. She had her arms up in the air and was looking at her mech creator expectantly.

"Does she want me to pick her up?" he asked, suddenly quiet and uncertain.

"Guess she inherited your insanity, too," Fury grumbled."Do you _want _to hold her?"

He hesitated.

"She doesn't bite, Screamer. At least, she hasn't yet. Here, if she wants to be held, hold her." Fury offered the sparkling to him.

He took her gingerly and held her out at arms' length in front of him, as if she were about to explode right in his face.

"You don't have to be that careful, you know. She's not one of your unstable experiments."

He laughed wryly. "In my opinion, yes she is." But he cupped her in his hands and brought her slightly closer. "She's quiet."

Fury coughed out a laugh. "Huh—no. She's not. Takes after you there, too."

Starscream shot her a dirty look that she ignored.

"But thank Primus she sounds like me."

He snorted. "Most bots are able to look past my voice."

"To what? Your arrogance? That's a great asset."

"Intelligence," he corrected. "Just because you don't know the difference—"

"Excuse me? I know the difference, and I am _intelligent_ enough to recognize arrogance when I see it. And you have it."

"What that?" the sparkling piped up from her mech creator's arms.

"What's what?"

"Arrogance. She wants to know what arrogance means." Fury explained with a sigh. Then she knelt down so she could look her sparkling in the optics. "Arrogance, little one, is what your mech creator has. He thinks he's better than everyone else and deserves better things."

The sparkling patted Starscream's arm and frowned. "He have that?"

"Oh, yes, he does," Fury confirmed, glancing up and giving Starscream a twisted, sardonic smirk.

"She's wrong," Starscream started, simply shooting the vitriol right back at his former mate. "I don't think I'm better than anyone else. If I did, then why would I come back to see you?" he ran his thumb over her head and gifted Fury with a saccharine smile.

The sparkling seemed to think about this for a moment. She looked back and forth between her creators and finally nodded slowly. "You come see me. Fury say you no see me. She say you work long away."

Fury stood suddenly. "What are you trying to do? Turn her against me?"

"I'm not trying to do anything of the sort!" Starscream exclaimed, appalled that she would even suggest that. "I'm simply trying to get her to see two different" _and opposing_ "viewpoints."

"You're such a slagging liar. You show up here not more than a half-joor ago because you received an anonymous transmission that you'd sired a little sparkling. Now you're trying to take control of a situation you walked out on in the first place! What are _your_ motives? Sunstrike already told me hers!"

"Doesn't a mech deserve a second chance?"

Fury ground her dental plates and took a step toward him. "No. Not you. You _missed_ your chance." She reached forward and snatched the sparkling back from him with narrowed optics. "I made up my mind to raise her on my own, and I'm not going to allow you to…_strut_ into her life and play the part of a caring creator that's been there for her the entire time. Because you haven't! So, either you take yourself right back through that door you came in, or I'll do it for you. Courtesy of my foot up your aft."

Starscream chuckled. "Sounds a bit kinky. Aren't we supposed to be fighting, not flirting?"

A nasty snarl flashed across her face. "Get out of here, you sick fragger," she growled. "You left once and I'm not going to let you back in."

"I let myself in."

"Leave! I meant it the first time and I mean it now. If you "don't want to stoop to my level" again, go back to Iacon, go back to your high-class home, go back to your lab, go back to your "other lovers." I don't need you, I don't want you. And neither does she."

"Do you know how long it took for me to fly down here? Quite a while. And I did not spend joors of my time coming to see you, only to be kicked out after a few breems."

Fury snorted. "What did you think I would do? Give you a warm welcome? Ask you to sit down and have a drink? Remember what happened the last time we were in that situation?"

He smirked and nodded down at the sparkling. "She happened."

Fury agreed with a sharp nod. "And I don't regret her, but I don't want another one."

The sparkling, who had been sitting quietly, listening to the exchange between her creators, suddenly trilled and patted Fury's chassis. "Energon now."

Fury sighed, nodded, and pushed past Starscream to the table.

Starscream hung back and observed as the adult femme hooked her sparkling up to the required tube and cube and started the pump. The tiny femme squirmed until she found a comfortable position to sit in. When she did, she settled with a quiet trill and watched the dull violet energon slide through the tubes and into her tanks.

Starscream, on the other hand, watched Fury as she moved around, tidying up. She never moved far from the counter and kept shooting glances over her shoulder at him. Despite her attitude, there were admirable things about her. She was intelligent, in relation to the rest of her social class, though still not nearly as intelligent as he was. She was devoted to her sparkling—their sparkling…but, unfortunately, the little femme would most likely not receive the best education or upbringing. In this part of the city, there were no outstanding educational institutions, and the only forms of entertainment nearby were…morally questionable. She would only end up being raised like her femme creator; wanton, careless. She would claim a mate who would do nothing to help her advance her position in society; she would produce more half-breed offspring that would fall into the same rut.

No. She was _his_ sparkling. Intelligent, and capable of producing an almost-pure Seeker pedigree, if she were provided with a suitable mate. She didn't deserve an upbringing in this slum. She deserved Iacon or Crystal City. But Fury wouldn't let him have any sort of custody. She blamed him for all this. He'd left because she told him to—granted, it wasn't difficult, the situation was pathetic—and he'd had no idea that their mating had produced a sparkling. And, scientifically speaking, that conception should not have happened at all. In the first place, he and Fury weren't similar enough for their sparks to feel _comfortable enough_ to conceive; and in the second place, there had been so much high grade in both of their systems that a conception would have been nigh impossible, even if their sparks _had_ been more compatible. And, on the rare occasion that the sparkling _was_ conceived, it should have had multiple disabilities and possible deformities and deficiencies. But instead, in spite of everything standing in her way, there the little scrap was. Her optics were bright, she was healthy, vivacious, and perfectly normal.

"Quit staring at me," Fury snapped, stacking the very low-grade cubes with much more force than was necessary. She clunked each one down on top of the previous until they hit the ceiling of the cooling unit, then started a new stack. "And for the love of Primus, sit. If you won't leave, at least sit. You're creeping me out just standing there."

The Seeker did sit, pulling a chair up to the table where his sparkling was settled. He noticed that Fury narrowed her optics, but didn't get up or say anything.

The sparkling cocked her tiny head and looked him over. This wasn't the typical cursory glance of an easily-distracted infant. No, she was giving him a thorough inspection with those sharp little optics. There was no mistaking that she was indeed _his_ sparkling. Already, keen intelligence was evident in her gaze; conscious thoughts were running through her newborn processor right now. She was analyzing him and she knew it. An insatiable curiosity burned in the depths of those bright blue lenses.

They followed the contours of his frame, slowly filing away every detail. Starscream felt the look sliding over him like a physical touch. Maybe it was because he'd never really been around sparklings much, maybe it was because this one was his—his own codes and circuits—or maybe it was because of another reason entirely; this sparkling made him nervous. His scientific mind told him that he was being completely irrational; the scrap was only about five kliks tall and weighed hardly anything, so what could it possibly do to him? But the _brilliance_ in those turquoise optics unnerved him. Naturally, she _should_ be brilliant; she was _his_ sparkling, after all, but there was a deeper level of cognitive subroutines being executed in that tiny head that told him this femme would be dangerous if she ever got mixed up in any of the wrong situations.

"You fly?"

The high-pitched chirp was so sudden that he was caught off guard and jumped slightly. The sparkling giggled. He gave her a dark look and composed himself. "Yes. I can fly."

"Teach me?"

There was a minor clatter as Fury shut the door of the cooling unit and straightened from her crouch. "No," she declared, striding over to the table and sitting down in the other chair. "He can _not_ teach you. Even if he did—which he won't—you don't have an alt mode to fly with."

"He have an alt mode?" the sparkling pointed at Starscream.

"Yeah, he's got one."

"Want to see," the tiny femme murmured, starting to stand.

"Uh-uh, no. Sit. You still have that tube in there."

The sparkling glanced down at the tube and the almost empty cube. "No want more. Take out."

Fury huffed. "I'm not going to take it out with that much left in there. Just let it finish."

The Seekerlet grumbled some nonsense, but obeyed and sat there with a dark expression until the pump sputtered to a stop and Fury disconnected the tube from her tanks. "Now?"

"Yeah, sure. Let me put this away, then we'll all go out there together…" As she passed Starscream on her way to the cabinets, she leaned down to him. "Don't try anything. Don't give her a ride and if you do end up flying, just head right back to Iacon. And don't bother to come back." She stood and stalked back to the cabinets, leaving no room for reply.

Tiny hands on his chassis prompted him to turn around. The sparkling was looking up at him and chirring quietly. "You big. More big than Fury."

"Yes…" he leaned back slowly so that her hands weren't on him anymore. "How come she can say your name correctly but not mine?"

"Your ego gets stuck in her vocals when she tries to pronounce it," Fury replied without missing a beat.

He stared at the femme for a moment, surprised by the lack of an equally sarcastic remark. Usually he could come up with something. Being insulted by everyone provided a good way for him to hone his comebacks. This time…there was nothing.

"How big?" the sparkling pressed.

"36 kliks," he answered, still staring at Fury as she stowed the tubes and the pump. He was never speechless. Especially not because of a _femme_.

"That big?"

"Yes, that's fairly big."

"How big me?"

"5.3 kliks."

"That not big."

"No. It's not."

"Where you live?"

"In Iacon."

"Where that?"

"Two territories that way." He shook his head and pointed to the northeast corner of the room.

"How far?"

"Very."

"I'm glad you two can keep up a conversation. See, Screamer, I told you she talks like you."

The sparkling held up her arms to her femme creator as she neared the table, seemingly oblivious to most of the jabs passing between the two adults.

"Come here, you little chatterbox. You want to see his alt mode; we'll let him show off, then hopefully send him home, right?"

The sparkling didn't seem to agree, at least not outwardly, and Starscream noticed Fury's reaction. It wasn't favorable.

* * *

><p>She'd never actually seen Starscream's alt mode. She'd heard that it was beautiful and flawless (surely he'd expect no less from the engineers) and that it was fine-tuned for gathering all kinds of data to take back to the lab.<p>

"There's a park nearby. We should go down there so we're not standing out in the middle of the street."

"Well," Starscream remarked, shutting the door after him as they filed out of the apartment, "I won't be standing."

Fury sidestepped past him to lock the door. If he tried to pull something and fly back before she and the sparkling could return, he wouldn't be able to just invite himself in again. He would have to wait. Even though she wasn't going to allow him back in. He'd catch on sooner or later. He'd been persistent so far, but he was intelligent and had to have at least _some_ manners. Enough to know to leave when he wasn't wanted.

"Where we go?" the sparkling asked, twisting around in her femme creator's arms.

"Somewhere where Screamer can show us his alt mode."

"Stop calling me that," the Seeker complained.

"Why? I think it suits you better than Starscream. It fits you. You're whiny, screechy, and not nearly intimidating enough to have the name Starscream."

He sniffed. "Take it up with my Creators."

She shrugged and made a face. "You're not worth the trouble."

He hissed quietly and leaned in close to her audio receptor. "I know you don't like me, and to be honest, I don't really think that highly of you, either. But the least you could do is act civil around the sparkling."

"And why do you care?"

"I may be arrogant, I may seem like I don't care about anyone but myself, but if I'd known that I had this sparkling from the moment you conceived, I think this whole situation could have been played differently."

Fury sighed. "We've been over this. You walked out—"

"You told me to."

"—and while I'd love to believe that you are doing this for the sparkling out of the kindness of your spark, I have a feeling that you want to raise this sparkling by your standards because you don't think she deserves this. You don't think she deserves me. You think because she looks like you that she has to be raised in luxury. If she is, she'll end up like you; conceited, entitled, snobbish. I don't want her to live like that."

Starscream pulled back, silent for a moment. "We can agree to disagree."

"Can we?"

He ignored her and looked down the street. "How far is this park?"

"Only a few breems away," Fury answered, bouncing the sparkling and readjusting her. The little femme chattered quietly. The skies had cleared and the sun had decided to take its job a little more seriously. Rays shone off the mirrored buildings, reflecting the commuters on the streets as they rushed to their destinations. She'd be one of them if she still had a job. Honestly, deep down, she was beginning to appreciate the fact that she was unemployed. True, she would have trouble supporting the sparkling later on, but since she was new to the whole experience, it was nice to have a reprieve from the orn-to-orn hustle and bustle of having a job so she could focus solely on _caring_ for her sparkling.

Starscream started down the pedestrian walkway. Fury followed. As much as she tried to keep herself from doing it, she couldn't help checking the Seeker out. He really was handsome. She just…had a thing for tall, thin, mechs with cute afts. And wings. That was a bonus. Being attractive seemed to be an innate trait for Seekers. It was as natural to them as flying.

"Two more orns," she muttered to herself.

Starscream looked back over his shoulder. "Did you say something?"

"Hm. Screamer, do you bet?"

He hesitated. "Only on a sure thing."

"So you're telling me you've never lost a bet?"

"Well, I wouldn't say I've _never_ lost a bet, but usually I end up profiting." He fell back into step beside her. "Why do you ask?"

"I've got a bet going with my neighbor right now."

"Dare I ask what for?"

Fury laughed. "Mmm…let's just say it'll only be me and her," she nodded at the sparkling, "in my berth for the next few orns."

Starscream kept staring straight ahead, but raised an optic ridge.

"Yeah, yeah, think what you want. But be careful what you call me in front of our daughter."

"You can make a viable bet regarding…" he looked up, as if a socially-acceptable phrase was somewhere above him, "…your intimate personal life?"

Another self-deprecating laugh. "Yes, Screamer, yes I can. And, better yet, I am determined to win that bet."

"How much is at stake?"

"1000."

"If you knew you'd be able to win it, why didn't you go bigger?"

She snorted. "Two reasons. One, I _didn't_ know whether or not I'd be able to hold out long enough. Two, I'm not cruel. I wasn't going to make her pay me everything she owns."

"But Primus knows you need it. Are you still out of a job?"

"Yes."

"That's going to cause a problem once those 1000 credits dry up."

"I know. I'll be able to find something. Won't be anything near like what I had before, I'm sure of that. But it'll be something that'll give enough support for both of us."

"What is there to do around here? Besides become a bartender or a pleasure bot? Although, given what I just learned about you, the latter would seem to be a good option."

"You may not know this, but pleasure bots are actually quite respected."

"Really." He didn't sound convinced. "They sell themselves. I find nothing respectable about that."

"I happen to be a sort of a friend to one."

He scoffed. "And by "a sort of a friend," you mean what, exactly?"

"Not what you're thinking. You need to get out of your lab every once in a while."

"I do. But Iacon—"

"Is not nearly as spotless as you think. Look around when you go back. You'll see things that you ignored on the basis of "Iacon is a respectable territory." Security Response brutality, orphaned sparklings, drugs, commercialized interface. The difference is, in Iacon, you're sheltered. Don't deny it, Screamer. You live in your own little world inside your lab. You see the high and mighty few of your territory. There are slums in every territory. Some are more prominent than others. Perceptions can be deceptive." She paused and studied his expression. He actually looked a little disturbed. Good. "Take me, for example. You're just now realizing that I'm more intelligent than you thought. You think that because I live in these conditions—which aren't that bad, honestly—I must be unintelligent and have nothing better to do with my time than drink and invite others into my berth for a living." Unfortunately, that was partially true. She consumed so much high grade that she _knew _it couldn't be healthy, and she was pretty desperate. Something had to be wrong with her sexual systems, because she couldn't get enough. Only, she wasn't getting paid for it.

"I know those things happen in every territory," Starscream conceded, albeit much quieter than he had been.

"But you don't want to accept it. So you ignore it."

He didn't bother to confirm or deny.

Fury sighed and looked down at her sparkling. The tiny femme had fallen into a slight doze while they walked and was now curled up, trilling every time she expelled air from her vents. Fury watched the little thing for a moment or two, again struck by how peaceful she was. She felt safe right now. Safe enough to recharge. "Time to get up, little one…" she crooned, rocking the tiny frame gently.

The sparkling chirped and blinked up at her with crossed optics. Next, she glanced over at Starscream and seemed to remember what they were doing. "Alt mode?"

"Yeah, little one. That's why we're here. And if you recharge, then we'll just go right back."

"Want to see…"

"I know you do." She turned to look at Starscream, who was surveying their surroundings. Thankfully, it was mid-morning, so almost everyone was at work and the park was deserted. "Show her, Screamer."

He snarled at the use of the nickname, but walked a few paces away from them and hesitated for only a few astroseconds while he ran some self-diagnostics. Then he leapt gracefully into the air and transformed perfectly in order to shoot off into the sky above them.

The sparkling watched his progress with attentive optics and an awed expression. "He fly…"

"Mmhm. He's flying." Fury was also watching attentively, but for different reasons. She'd seen Seeker alt modes before, but this one in particular was different. Starscream would have chosen it because it was efficient, streamlined, and probably very fast, but also because it was attractive. It shone in the morning sun, the rays traced the contours of his wings and nosecone; filtered through the vapor streams; and played across the shimmering silver as he twisted and spiraled and was an amazing flier. He seemed confident and it looked like he was enjoying it. He probably didn't get out for joy flights much, though, for all she knew, he did that more often than he did his research.

The sparkling squirmed in her arms, prompting her to look down. The little femme was standing against Fury's chassis, leaning out over the dark-plated arms in order to see the tricks her mech creator was performing high above them.

"Will he fall?"

"No. He knows what he's doing. He's not going to fall. But you, on the other hand…" Fury jostled her charge back into her arms so she wouldn't end up on the ground.

"You no let me fall."

"I'd catch you if you did."

"When I learn to fly?"

If she had to go through this conversation loop one more time…"When you have an alt mode."

"When that?"

Yeah, she should've known. Here it was again. "When you're older."

"When that—whoa, look!" the sparkling pointed furiously at the sky. Starscream had spiraled and left a corkscrew jetstream in his wake.

"Yeah, he's good," Fury sighed.

The sparkling watched for a few more astroseconds before returning her attention to her question. "When I older?"

"In a few hundred vorns." And even then, she would still only be a first-stage youngling.

The Seekerlet wrinkled her olfactory sensor. "That too long."

"You'll have to deal with it, because everybody else does. No exceptions for you."

"What an "exception"?" she pronounced it carefully.

"An exception is a situation when the rules don't apply to you. And in the case of aging, no one gets any exceptions."

"Why not?"

"Too complicated."

"What "complicated"?"

Fury brought the little scrap up to her face and nuzzled her ferociously, drawing out a giggle. "You need some downloads. I can't tell you everything!"

"I sit on you shoulder?"

"Yes. Here." Fury deposited the sparkling onto her shoulder, as requested. "I do have to say, though, for a sparkling, you have wonderful etiquette."

The sparkling hesitated and giggled again before tentatively asking, "What that?"

"I can answer that one," the dark-plated femme admitted with a sigh."It's how you should act around people you don't know."

"But I know you."

"Yes, but it still applies. It's the correct way of doing or asking something."

The sparkling nodded and refocused her attention on Starscream as he came in for his landing. Flying in close to the ground, he tipped his nosecone up in the air, then transformed and landed just as gracefully as he'd taken off. As he came closer, Fury noted that he was smiling. And it wasn't his typical sort of smile, either. This one was genuine.

"You…you…" the sparkling twisted around on Fury's shoulder excitedly. "You mazing!"

He puffed out his chest. "Thank you."

"Don't stoke his ego, sweetspark," Fury chastised.

"She's not," Starscream countered, though he deflated noticeably.

"Right, excuse me. You already know you're amazing."

The sparkling made a small noise from Fury's shoulder and fidgeted. "Why you do this?"

"Do what, little one?"

"No know. Whatever you doing now."

"Standing."

The Seekerlet huffed and shook her head, furrowing her optic ridges. "No. When you talk to him." She jerked her chin in Starscream's direction.

"Huh," Fury laughed. "That."

"Yeah. That. No like it. You get…" she paused and shuttered her optics for a moment. "You get angry."

"I'm not angry, little one. Irritated, annoyed, fed up, yes. Not angry."

"It feel angry," the sparkling retorted, thumping her tiny fist over her spark.

Right, their bond. She still hadn't gotten used to it. Her sparkling's emotions were faint against her own and she hadn't really learned how to analyze them yet. Obviously, the sparkling was having the opposite problem. "It's not angry."

"Why you do it?"

Fury took in a deep drag of air, held it for a moment, then let it out in a huge sigh. "I'd explain it to you, but you wouldn't understand any of it."

"You stop 'round me. You want to 'round him, fine. Not me. No want to hear it." She crossed her little arms across her chassis.

Fury was taken aback by the words being spat from that tiny vocalizer. She wasn't supposed to be able to speak like that! Yet, here she was, giving orders. Voicing her opinions, before she even knew what opinions were and how she got them. "Okay. We won't fight anymore." _At least not around you._

She fixed her optics on Starscream and gave a barely perceptible nod. He sighed quietly and tilted his head to the side in acknowledgement.

"Home," the sparkling murmured, suddenly sounding worn out. "You two make bad mood."

Starscream raised an optic ridge, but said nothing and started walking back the way they'd come.

Fury followed, not bothering to watch his aft this time. The sparkling kept fidgeting moodily on her shoulder and letting out little puffs of air from time to time. "I'm sorry, little one," she apologized quietly. "I didn't think you'd be able to understand…"

"I do."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Understand more than you think," the sparkling snipped. "Not stupid."

"I never said you were."

Tiny fingers tapped the side of Fury's head. "No have to say it."

Primus, why was she feeling so _guilty_ right now? She was being reprimanded by a _sparkling_, of all things! The little femme had no idea why she and Starscream fought, yet she could understand almost every insult being thrown back and forth, and it bothered the slag out of her, obviously. All because of emotions that she could feel through their bond. And to have the scraplet tell her that she wasn't stupid…and in almost full sentences?

"I know you're smart, sweetspark, but at your age, you shouldn't be able to understand all this. I was just surprised."

"You no like Starskeem."

"No. I really don't. We're…not supposed to be together."

"What 'bout me?"

"You're the only good thing that's come out of this relationship," Fury admitted quietly.

The sparkling didn't say anything after that and they walked the rest of the way in silence. Starscream reached the door first and waited with a pensive look on his face for Fury to catch up.

She put in the code and stepped through the doorway before him, plucking the sparkling off her shoulder and placing her on the table. "Need anything, little one?"

"Recharge."

Fury obliged.

* * *

><p>Once the little femme was settled, Fury shut the door to her private room and collapsed in a chair by the table. A few breems passed before she unshuttered her optics and stared at Starscream. "She understands everything we're saying."<p>

"Everything?"

"If not, at least most of it." She sighed and rubbed her optics. "She gets mad when we fight."

"No slag," he muttered. "_We_ get mad when we fight."

"Yeah, but we have a reason, Screamer. She doesn't. She _doesn't_ know our situation, and she _still_ doesn't like it."

"So what am I supposed to do?"

She fixed him with a flat glare. "Do you want to get me started?"

"Depends on what you're starting. If it's something like what happened in that bar, then I wouldn't mind starting that again."

The flat glare turned into a rather sharp glare. "No. That's not what I'm talking about and you know it. Quit being such an aft. Oh, no, wait, you can't help it. Sorry."

Somehow, even though the femme had a biting sarcasm that could be rather offensive, he found himself drawn to her. Mentally, he scolded himself for this. His thoughts had been through this loop a thousand times before. She was low class, vulgar, reckless, and yet…he still found himself…slightly attracted to her. Maybe for those exact same reasons. She was dangerous, she was rebellious, she was…challenging. She played hard to get. Well, after the first time, of course. Most femmes…and mechs…would do anything to get on his good side, including giving him all the sexual favors they could. Fury…hated him. She didn't want anything to do with him. He found that alluring.

"You're not the most pleasant person, either."

"Maybe we're more alike that we thought," she muttered, shaking her head and rubbing at pressure points near her audios. "Hope not."

"Maybe you do," he purred, sliding toward the table and perching on the chair opposite her.

"In your sick and twisted dreams, Screamer," was the reply.

"The least you could do is stop calling me that."

"No. We've been over this. From now on, you are Screamer to me. And if that doesn't make you want to leave, I don't know what will."

He sighed. "I get it. You don't want me here."

"For being such a brilliant scientist, it took you a while to figure that one out."

"The sparkling didn't want us to fight. Therefore, I didn't bring this up around her." He paused. "Speaking of her…does she have a name?"

"Not yet." She unshuttered her optics and raised one ridge. "Please don't tell me you're about to suggest your own name."

"Why would you think I'd do that?"

"Really? I know you well enough to assume you'd do that." She studied him for a moment. "You were going to, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"And what makes you think that she wants that?"

"Are you going to ask her?"

"Not now! I just put her down for a nap. I'm not going to wake her up."

"Then I'll have to stay longer, if you want to check with her."

Fury stared at him for a breem or so, then sighed. "No. I really don't want you here any longer than you have to be."

"Then you'll consider the name?"

"I was going to try to name her after one of her mannerisms, but seeing as she acts so much like you…"

"So you don't have any suggestions, then."

"No."

He sensed defeat in that voice. One step closer. The sparkling—his sparkling—would have his name. "So you'd consider Starscream?"

"I guess I have to. Until something better comes along."

He snorted. Hmph. Something better. "Well, you can't just keep calling her "little one" and "sweetspark" and "the sparkling," now can you?"

"No, I guess not. Look, Screamer, I'm tired too. Being around you takes it out of me," she glanced up for a quick glare. "Keep your perverted comments to yourself. If I agree to _possibly_ name her after you, will you just get out of here?"

"Yes."

"Good. Great. I'll consider it. Leave."

He pushed the chair back and headed for the door. "I'm not leaving for good."

"Whatever, Screamer. Right now is all I care about."

He shrugged and swept out the door, leaving her alone for the time being. He checked the traffic on the street and the sidewalk, then quickly transformed and started his flight back to Iacon. Next time he visited, that sparkling was going to be named Starscream. Even as intelligent as she was, Fury wouldn't be able to find "anything better."


	6. Guidance

**A/N: **I am so sorry, guys. I really am. Life has not been kind to me. Being in four AP classes, along with preparing for graduation and college, I should know better. *face-palms* Plus, my muse is being apathetic and picking peeling paint off my wall instead of providing me with amazing ideas. Bad muse.

Also, I apologize on the continuing fluffiness. I know I need to ramp up the action and find my plot somewhere. Endure another chapter or two of fluff, and then a plot will start to show up. Sorry. I will punish my muse for the continuing failure. There is some romance in here though, so…

**Cool Note: **The stats for this story after Namesake was posted were 1,010 hits (for February), 10 favs, and 10 alerts. How cool is that? All 10's. Anyway. Hope you all like this chapter; I know a lot of you were waiting for an update.

**By the way**: I have posted this on DeviantArt, so if anyone happens to like that format better… Several of the chapters do have a mature warning (the first chapter is strict), as you all know by now.

Hugs and virtual cupcakes to all who reviewed the last chapter: **Farky-fark and the Munky Bunch, Chibi Oro, Transformer Diva, KitsuneKeeper, CeeJayx, **and** SiriusBlackFan2.**

More thanks to **KitsuneKeeper, hauntingwolf, PainInUrAft-Nexy, collizzy, Kiraqify, **and** Screamer's Girl **for adding this story to their favorites, and **X-Men . Alum **(minus the spaces), **SiriusBlackFan2** (extra cupcakes to you, for your suggestion, and because the one I tried to send to you through PM didn't quite work out)**, Screamer's Girl, collizzy, **and** PainInUrAft-Nexy **for adding this to their alerts list.

I'll reply to anonymous reviews here:

**CeeJayx:** It's awesome to hear that you're finding this story enjoyable. The "biting sarcasm" is what I happen to be particularly good at, because it's how I operate. When I'm mad, I'm more likely to get snarky at people rather than blow up and start yelling. Here's the update you were waiting for! Hope you like it just as much as the first five!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except the OCs **Fury, Sunstrike, Lifeline, Raindance, Overdrive**, and **"the sparkling"**. Most of the cultural stuff, details, nuances, goes to **Hearts of Eternity**. She has sort-of given me permission to write within her universe. We're still working that out.

Warning on the formatting: some of the words may be stuck together; recently, my computer has started doing that and I don't know why. I'm trying to catch them, but may not be able to get them all. Just so you know; if you happen to run across a new "compound word." XD

Read, **review**, and enjoy! (And seriously guys, I'm not looking for all praises here. Try to balance the flattery with some things that need improvement.) And if you want, tell me your thoughts on who you think Lifeline's son might be… (all you silent readers out there…)

* * *

><p>Fury waited until the sound of his engines faded, then stood and shuffled back to her private room and quietly opened the door. The sparkling was there, recharging, curled up with her back against the wall.<p>

Starscream. It wouldn't suit her. She did look and act like him, but…Fury sighed and pushed away from the door. Starscream. Starscream. She lay down next to the tiny frame and ran her finger down its winged back. The sparkling trilled and wiggled closer out of instinct. "Do you want to have the same name as that aft?" The deeply-recharging sparkling gave no reply. "No. Why would you? Even though you don't seem to hate him as much as I do. Then again, you weren't the one who got so drunk she had her processor screwed out." But whose fault was it, really? Maybe both of them.

She pulled the shutters on the window and got comfortable next to her sparkling. The tiny body seemed so cold compared to her own. She gathered the little one in her hand and nestled her against her chassis, close to her spark.

Starscream. Starscream. She just didn't…it wouldn't work. Her sweet little creation was too beautiful to be named Starscream. He said he'd be back. Why? All the words that came out of his mouth gave every indication that he thought she was trash. Uncultured, urban trash. So why the Pit did he keep coming back? Was he that desperate? Was he lying about those "other lovers" he claimed he had? Did he want her to end up inviting him back; accepting his…affection? Did he _have_ affection for her? Did he _ever_ have affection for her? _Could_ he have affection for her? He was surprisingly emotional for a mech grounded in science. He definitely had a temper, and there had obviously been emotions running wild that night in the bar. Lust was an emotion. And he certainly showed more than his fair share of it.

She flipped onto her back and rested her left arm under her head. Why was she even lying here? She wasn't tired, but she didn't want to go outside and face the world. It was amazing how fast rumors spread. Around here, those that didn't know her actual name just referred to her as "the femme that recharged with Starscream." She had been mildly respected before all this happened, and now…she was just another slut living in the slums of Kaon. She hated being judged. She really should be out there, looking for a job so she could support the little Seeker fledgling she delivered a few orns ago. But if she stepped one foot out that door, she would be judged. She didn't want to see the looks of—disgust; pity—on the faces of everyone who looked at her.

But it was _her_ fault. _She_ was the one who had been soliciting herself. _She_ was the one who had wallowing in self-pity. _She_ was the one who had actively tried to seduce the Seeker scientist. _She_ was the one who hadn't stopped him when he got too eager. He had nothing to do with any of it, besides siring the sparkling. The sparkling was an accident, but the whole thing wouldn't have happened if _she_ had decided to deal with the loss of her job in a different way. She couldn't blame her employer, she couldn't blame Starscream, she couldn't blame the high-grade. _She_ had done something in order to get fired. _She_ had allowed Starscream to do what he did. _She _had been the one to drown herself in the high-grade. There was no one to blame but herself. So maybe she deserved it. The judgment.

"I fragged everything up, little one. None of this was supposed to happen. But it did. You did. You're the only thing keeping me alive, you know that? If it hadn't been for you, I would be…" Dead. She'd be dead. She turned toward the sparkling again and resumed running her fingers up and down the little femme's back.

Could all of this have happened for a reason? Was there some grand scheme being planned out beyond the realm of mortal comprehension? Fury wasn't sure she believed in any of that. Primus and Unicron and all the ancient Primes now immortalized. There was enough on the planet, in the natural world, to worry about; everything supernatural was just too…out there. There were times when it certainly seemed possible that something greater existed and was pulling the strings. Occurrences that were just too coordinated to be natural.

Did this sparkling's existence have anything to do with that? While the situation seemed mundane—accidental bondings and conceptions happened all the time; Raindance confirmed that herself—there were too many events that seemed out of place. _Why_ had she lost her job? She _was_ really good at it. She'd worked her way almost to the top and was making a _very_ good salary (for that part of the city)…so, on a whim; her overseer thought it would be a good idea to _fire_ her? And why had Starscream walked into _that_ bar, of all places? There were most likely hundreds of them in Iacon that were higher scale; more suited to a mech of his social standing, yet…he decided to fly all the way down to Kaon to _this _particular bar. And the _conception_! That should not have happened at all. She'd run this through her processor dozens of times before: why had a high-grade drenched mating with an incompatible mech produced a smart, healthy sparkling? Something was off. It was so imperfect that it couldn't have been more perfect.

Small movements at her side yanked her thoughts out of the surreal and back into reality. Celestially-sent or not, this sparkling was hers and it was her responsibility to care for her. She was not about to let Starscream get his claws on her and raise her as part of the entitled Iacon upper-class. Which brought her back to the name. Starscream. Was that a part of the grand plan, too? Names held such little significance, it didn't seem likely that giving this sparkling the name of her mech creator would have any profound effect upon the universe. That was the only thing that wasn't unusual about all this. He was an arrogant son-of-a-glitch, so it only made sense that he would want his only offspring to bear his name. Well, she assumed this sparkling was his only offspring. For all she knew, he had scores of other little Pit-spawned Seekerlets running around all over the planet. His little minions.

She laughed. Minions. Like he was trying to take over the world. How much control would he be able to impress on the citizens of Cybertron before they realized he was a joke? He seemed somewhat organized He'd give one speech and half the population would die of severe processor hemorrhages…why was she even thinking about this? The scenario was almost as unbelievable as the option that her sparkling could be a key piece in the fate of the universe.

She sighed and checked her chronometer. The better part of a joor had passed while she was lost in her musings. The sparkling stirred again and made a small noise. Fury carefully slid off the berth and started for the door. She would warm up a cube of energon, drink it while she waited for the sparkling to wake up, then see how she felt. She had to find a job. Sure, she knew she'd be getting 1000 credits in two orns, but there had to be a secondary (and eventually primary) source of income after that, unless she was able to coax Sunstrike into another bet, which she doubted.

She made her way to the energon dispenser at the table and filled up a cube with a slightly more potent mixture than the one she'd been imbibing since the day she conceived. Nothing that would intoxicate her, it simply had more of a kick to it that diluted slag. It bubbled down to her tanks and warmed up her systems, prompting her to sit back in her chair with a sigh. Sweet silence. Strangely enough, she could appreciate silence now. Her life had been flipped. Before, it was just her, (usually) alone in her apartment, so she longed for social interaction and the wild night life of Kaon. Now, once she'd gotten her fill of Starscream's high-pitched, self-righteous squawking and the nonstop yet innocent questioning of her newborn sparkling, silence was a welcome reprieve.

She took another sip of the warmed energon, acutely feeling its progress down into her tanks. She would need to go down to the wash racks soon. And she couldn't leave the little one alone in here. Primus knows what she'd get into. No. She had to go to the wash racks too. Which meant it was time to give Lifeline a call.

She pulled herself out of her chair and went to the other end of the room where the communications panel was located. Briefly checking her memory, she tapped in the medic's code and waited as the connection established. About a breem later, the screen fizzled briefly, then focused on the familiar face of the red femme.

"Fury! What's the occasion?"

Fury laughed wryly. "Oh, so many things. Where do you want me to start?"

"What on Cybertron could have happened already? The sparkling's only an orn old!"

"Turns out she's more of a hassle than I thought she'd be."

"I warned you," Lifeline chastised teasingly.

"Was that an insult?" called a deeper voice from somewhere off-screen.

Lifeline laughed and looked over her shoulder. "No, sweetspark. You were a wonderful sparkling."

There was a disbelieving huff. "I know when you're lying."

The red femme just laughed and waved away the mech's comments, turning back to the screen. "That's mine. He's home for a few orns, then goes back to the Academy in Centaurie Tetrax."

"You're the one I heard so much about," Fury said, directing her comment at the young mech out of sight.

"What'd she say about me?" He appeared in the background a moment later, with a crooked half-smirk across his mouthplates.

"She said you were a pain in the aft," Fury admitted. "But…she said—and I quote—you were worth every bit of trouble you got into."

"See, Lifeline, I knew you were lying."

The red femme sighed, feigning defeat. "Every sparkling gets into trouble. You are the best one I've ever had."

The young red and white mech snorted. "I'm the _only_ one you've ever had." And with that comment, he disappeared from view.

"Real charmer you got there."

Lifeline chucked. "In his own way."

"He's got my kind of personality. I like him."

"He's actually very soft-sparked when you get past all the attitude. Which is part of why he decided to become a medic as well."

"Takes after you, then."

"He's more like me than his mech creator. But enough about my family. What happened with you?"

Fury sucked in a massive draft of air. "Yesterorn. I was recharging. Long story short, the little thing managed to unlock the door and get out into the next-door apartment, where Sunstrike and her mate live. She's the one I made the bet with. We…got into a fight. About my caretaking ability. She doesn't think I'm able to raise a sparkling. Do you think I'm…insufficient?"

"Not in the least. I've seen cases much worse than yours. I've had to…" Lifeline paused. "…I've had to operate on injured sparklings that were abused by their creators… Some made it, some didn't. I think your sparkling is going to be raised in a very good, loving environment."

Fury nodded quietly. "Thanks for the reassurance. I just…needed a professional opinion, I guess."

"Simply my job," the medic replied.

Fury tried not to think about abused sparklings and focused on continuing with her narrative of experiences. "After all that, we recharged until morning. Then went out for a walk and when we came back…Starscream was here. In my apartment. He was just sitting in this room, with a little smirk, like he owned the place. Another long story short…we got into a few arguments, the little one was curious about his alt mode, so we went to the park down the street and he showed off, got into some more arguments, I got thoroughly chewed out by my own sparkling, and now—"

"Wait, wait. How did she manage to "chew you out?"

Fury sighed. "She got mad—she gets mad—when she hears me and Screamer fighting. She doesn't like it. I told her that I didn't think she could understand all of what was going on. She…proved me wrong. She told me she wasn't stupid and I never thought she was, but for her to tell me that—and in almost complete sentences! Should she be able to do that?"

Lifeline shook her head. "No. She shouldn't at this point, but I told you they're impressionable. They pick things up quickly."

"Yeah…they do. But entire speech patterns?"

The medic shrugged. "It's not unheard of. Unlikely, but not impossible." She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "Mine had a very…colorful vocabulary early on. I blame his mech creator for that one. He learned curses before he learned manners. And I'm still not completely sure he understands the manners I taught him."

From off-screen, there came the reassurance of, "I do…I do…"

Lifeline's expression remained unconvinced. "But S…" she checked herself, then continued, "her mech creator is intelligent, as are you, so it's not entirely outrageous to assume she inherited that from the both of you, is it?"

"No, but…she's actually aware of what she's saying. I've interacted with sparklings before; most of them just say whatever's going through their processors at that moment. This one…she _knows_ what she's thinking. Her intelligence isn't…" she paused, searching for a word, "…dormant. She _uses_ it. And it scares the slag out of me sometimes."

The sound of the door opening across the room drew her attention away from the conversation. The door was cracked and near the floor, a little gray frame wobbled unsteadily. Fury sighed and held up her finger to Lifeline. "Give me an astrosec. She's up." She stood and walked back across the room to where her sparkling balanced on underused feet, with one tiny hand braced against the doorframe, the other one raised.

"Did I wake you up, sweetspark?"

The sparkling nodded quietly and reached toward Fury with her raised hand.

"Come here…" the adult femme reached down and gathered the sleepy bundle in her arms before returning to the communication screen.

The fascinating new contraption rendered the tiny femme speechless for a breem while she investigated it. Both adults watched, amused, until the sparkling went for the buttons on the side panel. With a few words of admonition, Fury pulled her back and nestled her against the dark metal of her own chassis.

"Obviously curious," Lifeline noted. "That's a good sign."

The sparkling chattered and looked at Fury before pointing at the screen.

"She recognizes you."

"Her vision should far surpass ours. Little ones learn by sight. The fact that she's part Seeker also contributes to sharp optics."

"She has sharp everything," Fury muttered. _Like Starscream._ This sparkling was just too much like Starscream. She hoped that Lifeline's son wasn't listening too closely to their conversation. Too many hints had involuntarily been dropped and it would be easy for him to figure out who they were trying not to talk about. "Actually," she started, hoping to draw the subject away from _him_, "I called to ask how I'm supposed to wash her. I need to go down to the wash racks today and I'm not going to leave her in here again after…what happened."

Lifeline thought for a moment. "She's still very small and young. And her frame is just barely leaving the denser, liquid protoform state that she started out with—I mean, it's solid right now—but fragile."

"So I can't take her with me."

"You can. But keep her out of the actual shower. If there's a bench or a shelf, put her there. She shouldn't need to be actually washed, should she?"

"No, she's clean, but I have to take her with me."

"Then keep her away from the cleaning fluid and for Primus' sake, don't let her leave your sight."

"I've learned that." Fury glanced down at her sparkling, then back up at the screen. "Thank you. I'll leave you to your family; while I try to handle mine."

Lifeline chuckled. "You're just leaving me to argue with my mechs."

"But it's not serious. You have a faithful mate and a brilliant son. At the end of the orn, you can curl up with them and tell them you love them."

"I know. I shouldn't complain. I do love them."

Again, the voice in the background piped up with a syrupy and completely insincere, "Thank you…"

Lifeline scoffed. "Did you hear? She called you brilliant."

The young mech laughed. It was a light, although sincere sound, and was followed by an equally sincere, "Thank you," as opposed to the one he'd given his femme creator.

Lifeline raised an optic ridge at the communication screen. "You managed to make him laugh."

The sparkling was obviously intrigued by the second voice coming from somewhere outside of the viewing area of the screen in front of her. She chirped a few times, and reached for the screen again, only to be pulled back by Fury and reprimanded.

Lifeline smiled at the little femme, then sighed and glanced back over her shoulder. "Well, I'd better go. I know you have things to do, and Primus knows I'm up to _my_ aft in things that need to be done…"

Fury acquiesced with a slight nod and reached for the controls on the side of the panel. "Can I call you if I need something else?"

"Of course. In fact…I might make this one answer you and try to tell you what to do. Part of his training."

"I'm on break," the voice complained.

"You should have known better. I always make you work."

The response was incomprehensible grumbling.

Lifeline shrugged. "So feel free to call anytime. Someone will be here to answer. I'll let you hang up."

The last thing Fury saw was the red femme rise from her seat and turn around, then she pressed the terminate button and ended the call. She remained seated in front of the screen for a moment, sighed, then stood and started for the door with her sparkling in her arms. "We're going down to the wash racks, little one."

"See others?"

"Yeah. There'll be other bots there. Not many though. Most will be at work."

"What work?"

"It's something that someone does to earn credits."

"Credits for energon," murmured the sparkling, obviously remembering Fury's explanation of what credits were.

"Yes. For energon and a lot of other things."

The little femme didn't request any elaboration, for once.

There were several moments of silence while the two made their way to the elevator a few kliks down the hall. Fury stepped in and pressed the correct button, sighing and leaning against the wall as the doors shut and the ancient gears began to grind. The sparkling tensed slightly as the suspended cubicle began to drop. Fury soothed her almost unconsciously, quieting her nervous trills. "It's alright, sweetspark. There's nothing to worry about. It's stable." She hoped her own discomfort wasn't showing through in their bond. Memories flew to the front of her processor, unbidden. The memory of the lift stopping, the strange whispers outside the door, the disembodied voice in Lifeline's clinic at her half-term exam, the sound of the door of the wash racks opening and closing, without it actually happening, the strange behavior of the little blue pleasure bot the orn afterward. Now wasn't the time to be bringing up the possible haunting of these old apartments.

The elevator lurched to a stop at the bottom of the shaft and the doors swooshed open onto another hallway. Fury started toward the clear sliding door to the wash racks, fervently praying that no one else was there. It wasn't that she wanted to be alone, she didn't care, washing was communal, but again it came back to the judgment. If someone else were in there, she would be questioned.

With a strange feeling of resignation, she stepped through the doorway when it opened for her and made a beeline for the shower that she'd informally claimed as her own. Everyone in the apartments picked one and rarely used another. Hers was in the far corner, with a good vantage point of the rest of the room. When she'd turned so that she could covertly survey everything, she took note of the other occupants of the room. There was actually only one. Fury ducked her head and heard her cooling fans start up to combat the heat that had spontaneously broken out all over her frame. To her, it sounded too loud in the quiet room.

Of all the bots—all the mechs—in the building, it _had_ to be Overdrive. She didn't know why he was alone, though. Usually, Sunstrike was down here too, not that they were anywhere near each other. He was in another corner, so he hadn't seen when she'd walked in. Now she really wished she were alone. Why did it have to be him?

She turned away and searched for a shelf that she could keep the sparkling on. There was the small ledge that ran along the wall, used for holding soaps and other small objects. It would be out of the stream of the cleaning fluid. She settled the sparkling on the ledge, pleased that she was able to sit comfortably. "Stay there, little one," she commanded, though quietly. "You need to stay out of the shower. Don't get wet, okay? And don't move from that spot. I don't want you to get into trouble again."

"But you say I not in trouble."

"And you weren't. I didn't mean punishment. I meant…" she stopped with a sigh. She didn't know how to explain a lot of things to the tiny femme. "Don't worry about it." She turned the knob on the column and adjusted the heat. Satisfied, she reached for the soap. Thankfully, the sparkling settled and seemed content to watch the flow of cleaning fluid coming out of the showerhead and winding its way across the floor to the drain.

The wash racks were the best place for Fury to sort out her thoughts. Even at the times when she didn't need a wash, she would come down here and think. The act of washing had become so common, so habitual, that she could completely remove herself from everything besides her own thoughts. Though, now, she had to keep tabs on both her sparkling and the illegally gorgeous mech from the apartment next door. The former; so she didn't do anything stupid. The latter; just for the sake of knowing where he was and if he was coming toward her so she could plan what she would say.

Unlike with Starscream, who she had no trouble talking to—and by talking, she meant assaulting with a barrage of insults—Overdrive rendered her completely speechless. If he so much as glanced in her direction, she swore her vocals powered down on their own. She couldn't manage to get a single word out. And it honestly irritated her and scared the living slag out of her at the same time, because he was the _only_ mech who caused her to act like that! With all others, she could very easily play the seductive single femme who could give any mech the night of his life. If she did manage to pull herself together enough to get a sound out of her vocals, it was very unintelligent babbling that just made him flash her that adorable little smile of his.

He was beautiful and he knew it, just like she was sure of the fact that he knew she was completely sort-of maybe in love with him. Her hormonal systems were making her break down into a little pile of needy lust. Damn the bet she made with Sunstrike. If it weren't for that, she'd work up her resolve, stride across the room, and take the mech right here, right now. No matter that he was already claimed. She'd gladly take him back to her berth, if only he asked. Who cared about anyone else? Maybe he and Sunstrike had gotten into a fight. Their argument regarding how Fury would be raising her sparkling had seemed pretty heated. Maybe that's why they weren't down here together. If they'd informally split for the time being, then what did it matter if she kept him…physically compensated…until the fight was resolved?

"Fury?"

The smooth, deep voice made her jump. Immediately, the images that had started to fill her processor disappeared and were replaced with nothing. Like they always did, her vocals locked up and she opened and shut her mouthplates uselessly. And there it was. That cute little smile.

"I just wondered if you needed any help with anything."

Help? Why would she need help? She needed help speaking; that was for sure. But she had no trouble thinking. The fantasies started coming back and she wondered how much cuter he'd be in her berth—or maybe his, yes, his was bigger—on top of her. Tied to something? Maybe she'd be the one in control. Maybe it was better that she couldn't say anything. All her thoughts would start coming out her mouth and that would be the worst possible thing imaginable right now. She'd scare him away. Or, in a best-case scenario, it would totally turn him on. Oh, sweet Primus, if only that were the case.

Her expression must have betrayed something, because he silently raised an optic ridge. She shuttered her optics and shook her head, pulling confidence out of somewhere; where—she had no idea, and opening her mouth. "No, not really. I'm fine."

"You didn't look like it a few astroseconds ago."

She didn't give a frag. That was the first intelligent thing she'd ever said directly to him. Who cared if he found out about her fantasies? They probably _would_ turn him on. She doubted he and Sunstrike ever interfaced enough. "It's been a long couple orns," she answered, stealthily checking him out, now that he was close to her. She'd never been this close to him before. And from here, he looked even better.

He shrugged and started to turn to leave.

"Um, actually, wait. There is something you can do. Can you watch her," she tilted her head in the sparkling's direction, "while I wash? Would you mind?"

He looked at the small, dark scrap sitting on the ledge. The sparkling stared back. "Sure."

"You can hold her; just don't let her get wet." Strangely enough, once that initial sentence had been forced out of her vocals, the rest was easier. She was having a perfectly normal conversation with quite possibly the most delicious mech in the city. She watched as he reached for the little sparkling and held her gently, enveloping her in his arms. What Fury wouldn't give to be held in those arms.

"So how much of what Sunstrike's told me is true?" he asked, bouncing the sparkling and smiling when she giggled.

"Depends on what she's told you."

"That you hooked up with Starscream. That this sparkling is his."

"Those are both true. Anything else?"

"She embellished quite a bit. That was the basis of what she told me."

"Then she's not lying," Fury sighed. She tried to wash herself normally, but found that it was much more difficult than she thought it would be. She was being much more…sensuous than she usually was. It wasn't even conscious. She was just…doing it.

Not that he was paying any attention. He was grinning down at the sparkling, tickling her, talking to her. He would be a good mech creator. Unfortunately, he and Sunstrike would probably never have a sparkling of their own. For all the slag she gave Fury, she wasn't even willing to have one of her own to try to raise. And if she did have one, it would be planned. It was because of this that she hated Sunstrike's criticism. No one had the right to judge unless they had experienced the exact same thing. And that was next to impossible.

"Who cares if Starscream sired her? She's cute, sweet, smart. I'd say she takes after her femme creator more than Starscream."

Again, his ridiculously cute smile. And maybe she was reading into it a little too deeply, but there seemed to be an invitation in that smile, this time. She was familiar enough with flirting to recognize it immediately and Overdrive was definitely using it. She prayed, almost pleaded, that her systems wouldn't lock again, and returned the sexual banter. "Thanks. If you and Sunstrike had any, they'd definitely take after you, in all the same ways."

At the mention of his mate's name, his mood seemed to darken. "I doubt that will ever happen."

Fury almost felt guilt about seeing this as her golden opportunity, but that was quickly replaced with satisfaction. "Something happen between you two?"

He sighed. "Well, yes. I mean, it's nothing new, really. But it's gotten worse after you had…her." He nodded down at the sparkling.

"Is it about that fight we had yesterorn?"

"Mm. She's being a hypocrite. She's harassing you about how you could _potentially_ raise your sparkling, but she wouldn't know the first thing to do in your situation, either. Every time I tried to talk some kind of sense into her, she brought the old arguments back up. It was going nowhere. I…needed a break."

"Did she kick you out?"

He laughed. "No. I kicked her out. She's staying with her sister."

Fury tried to keep her expression from betraying her again. Sunstrike's sister's apartment was on a completely different floor. If Overdrive was still living next door… But she had to take it slow. There was still the rest of the current orn, and the next one, before she'd get paid for the bet…and could get laid again. "Is she angry about it?"

"Yes. But that's the thing. We've been over this a thousand other times. And she doesn't get it. Nothing about the way she acts has changed in the least. By this point, I'd sort of hoped that she would be a little more…flexible and open-minded, but she isn't. So I don't understand why she's mad at me. She knew this was coming."

_He_ didn't sound angry. He sounded tired. And maybe a little frustrated, but the prevailing attitude was weariness. He was just fed up and didn't know what to do about it anymore. In Fury's favor, their fighting had opened up an opportunity for her to…get to know him a little better. The situation was perfect. The only factor that would have any bearing on their potential relationship was him. Would he be okay with it?

"I'm really sorry," he said with another sigh. "I shouldn't have thrown all that onto you. You needed me to take care of your sparkling, not bother you with my problems."

If only he wouldn't be so hesitant to throw _himself_ onto her. Fury shook her head. "It's fine. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one having major issues right now."

"You have a healthy, beautiful sparkling. How is that a major issue?"

"It's not her that's the problem. It's _him._"

Overdrive nodded silently. Fury debated whether or not to tell him about Starscream's visit. Would it be the right thing to do, since he had shared his own personal dilemmas? Or would it cause problems? Maybe he and Sunstrike weren't having a fight at all and were faking it so he could get some information out of her that they could use to sabotage— That was a terrible and highly unlikely scenario. Besides, her reputation was already slag, so what was the use? "Starscream showed up in my apartment."

The mech looked surprised for a moment. "When?"

"This morning."

"What did he want?"

"I have no fragging clue. The sparkling and I went for a walk and when we came back, he was just sitting in one of the chairs in the main room."

"I assume he's left by now?"

"Yeah. A few joors ago."

Overdrive didn't say anything else, just shook his head and looked back down at the sparkling in his arms. "Does she have a name?"

Fury sucked in some of the steamy air around her and held it before letting it out in a sigh. "No. That's partly the reason he was there, though. He wanted to see if the rumors were true. Any idea who could have told him that he had a sparkling?"

"I didn't even know until Sunstrike told me a few orns after talking with you down here. And how in the name of Primus could it have reached Iacon so fast?"

"I don't know. And it doesn't really matter, at this point. The news is already out. It's just a matter of time before the media show up on my doorstep."

"That won't happen. Yeah, Starscream's important and high-class, but he doesn't want the world to know he had a fling and ended up with a sparkling. No offense."

"None taken. It was my fault. I was a complete half-bit."

"I don't need to know the details," Overdrive sighed.

"He does want me to name her after him, though."

"Huh. Are you going to?"

"I don't know. On one hand, it would be the easy way to give her a name, but on the other hand…" she shook her head. "I just don't want to make this any more public than it's already gotten. Besides, naming her Starscream is doing exactly what he wants." She turned the knob and adjusted the heat of the cleaner with a huge sigh.

"Did you have any other ideas for names?"

"…no."

"There's your problem. You have nothing to use against him. Right now, his suggestion is the only thing standing. There's no argument."

Actually, there had been plenty of arguments between she and her…former…mate, but she knew that wasn't what Overdrive meant. "You sound like a damn lawyer," she grouched.

He grinned. "I took a few intro classes when I trained at the Academy."

She stared at him with both optic ridges raised. "Why aren't you _doing_ anything with them? You could be…well, you could be pretty much anywhere but _here_, making good credits. What were you thinking?"

"Didn't really do anything for me," he answered with a shrug. "I wanted to…I didn't know what I wanted to do. At the time I made my decision, I wanted to settle down. Find my 'true love.' Become a creator…" He laughed at her expression. "I know, I know. Crazy. What self-respecting young mech would want to do that? Believe me, with my upbringing, living in one place permanently sounded like paradise."

"What did your creators do?"

"More accurately, it's what they _didn't_ do—need help?"

"Um…if you don't mind."

"Not at all." He replaced the sparkling on the shelf and took the soap from Fury to begin cleaning her back.

It was difficult keeping her systems in check, being able to feel a mech's hands on her again. So she watched her little fledgling, settled on the shelf in front of her. If anything could keep her processor off of her growing lust, it was staring at the consequences of the said lust.

"Do you want me to help you come up with some names to shoot back at Screamer?"

"You call him Screamer, too?"

Overdrive snorted. "Everyone does. And how can you _not_? You've heard his voice."

"And I've also heard him overload," Fury muttered. "After that, calling him Screamer is more than verified."

"I do _not_ want to think about that," Overdrive said, sounding pained.

"Neither do I," Fury agreed.

Silence reigned for several breems while they both tried to wipe the image of an overloading Starscream out of their processors. Fury started to fall into a doze; brought on by the warm steam and Overdrive's equally warm hands rhythmically stroking her shoulders, working the soap into the plating.

He finally broke the quiet. "So. About the names. What seems to fit her?"

Fury raised her hands in the air with a helpless shrug. "_I _don't know. I'm terrible at this. I have no idea where to start."

"Think about it a little. You could…combine your names. Appease him while also being able to take a little bit of charge. Something like…Starfury?"

It wasn't a bad name. But her part of it was still _after_ his. Then again, Furystar didn't nearly have the same ring to it. "Maybe."

"Maybe. We'll have to do better than maybe. What about…think about the way she acts. Could you find something based off of her personality?" He waited for her response and scrubbed at a spot in between her shoulders.

"She acts like her mech creator," Fury lamented, tossing her hands in the air again. "She's smarter than she should be right now. She's analytical, open-minded—I think she might actually _like _him."

"You talk 'bout me?" the sparkling chirped from her perch. "I right here…"

"Ask her," Overdrive suggested. "See what she thinks."

"My name?"

"Yeah, your name," Fury sighed. "Starscream wants to name you after him."

"What that mean?"

"He wants to name you Starscream."

"Oh. Why?"

"I don't know, little one. I do not know."

"Do you like that name?" Overdrive asked the smaller of the two femmes. "What about Starfury?"

The sparkling thought about these options for a moment or two, cocking her head and scrunching her tiny optic ridges. "Starskeem. Starfewy. Like both."

"You can't have both. Pick one." Fury silently prayed that her sparkling wouldn't choose her sire's name.

"Can I wait?"

"Not really."

The little femme pouted and shifted around into a new position. "Starskeem."

Overdrive's hands tensed against her back. He was probably getting ready to hold her down in case she went on the fritz all of a sudden. "Are you sure?" Fury asked, trying very hard not to grind her dental plates and sound like she was about to kill someone.

The sparkling nodded.

"Are you absolutely sure?" This was going to be Pit. Two Starscreams. _Two_!

The sparkling looked confused and Fury realized she probably didn't understand the adjective. She nodded again, having the sense to look a little worried. In her tiny processor, she was probably thinking, _My femme creator's going to explode_. Or something along those lines.

"This is her decision," Overdrive murmured in her audio. "Let her be."

"She's a fragging traitor!" Fury hissed back.

He only laughed. "You have to remember she's innocent. She has no idea what sort of history you two have. She doesn't know the circumstances of her existence." Then he directed his attention at the sparkling. "Would you like to go by Star? Just so it's easier to say?"

Another nod.

"There you go. You don't even have to call her by her full name."

"How convenient," Fury groaned. "Why couldn't you be her mech creator?"

She thought he would laugh. He didn't. He just simply said, "It wasn't supposed to happen like that. I have Sunstrike. For some reason, you were meant to have a sparkling with Starscream."

Funny how thoughts worked.

Fury sighed. She had to look at the bright side. She had a healthy sparkling. So, yes, her name was Starscream. But Fury would call her Star. It sounded more feminine, anyway. And maybe, now that she _did _have…_his_…name, he would back off a little. What more could he possibly want from either of them? Besides custody. There was no way in Pit she would let him take her sparkling, though, so that wasn't even really an issue on the table.

She turned off the shower and gently shrugged Overdrive's hands off of her back.

"Sorry," he apologized in a tone only meant for her. "I was getting ready to hold you down if there was a scene."

She made a noncommittal noise and flicked the liquid from her hands before picking up her sparkling.

"You done?" the tiny femme chirped.

"Yeah. I'm done." Done investing hope into this now officially slagged situation.

"Back home?"

Fury nodded and didn't bother to tell the sparkling that they were, technically, still at home, just in a different part of the building.

Overdrive shifted his weight over to his other foot and cleared his vents. "I guess I'd better be going back too."

_Perfect_, Fury thought. The desire to be alone had conquered her desire for her neighbor's mate. This second Starscream was really starting to fray her wires. Starscream. Just the thought of the name killed any sort of romantic feelings she had at the moment. She had to get used to this. Overdrive would still be there, next door, when these last two orns of the bet were up, and she had her credits. Hopefully, he and Sunstrike would still be fighting. She wasn't above having an affair. It was a way for her to keep her mind off of everything else going on in her fragged up life.

"Come on," Overdrive sighed. "I'll walk you back."

Reluctantly, she allowed him to escort her out of the wash racks and into the elevator across the hall. Inside, she leaned against the wall and let him press the correct buttons. As the doors closed, he leaned against his wall opposite from her and gave her a look that clearly said, _let it go_.

Easy for him to say. He hadn't been the one to get raped. Okay, so it was consensual, but after all the consequences, it didn't seem like it. But it wasn't Screamer's fault. She had to keep reminding herself that Starscream couldn't take the blame. She had to.

…and then she'd end up depressing herself to the point where she'd commit suicide anyway, sparkling or not. Who would the sparkling go to? Starscream would try to take her. Maybe…maybe she'd allow Sunstrike and Overdrive to have her. If Sunstrike thought she'd be able to raise the sparkling better than—

The doors opened on their floor and Overdrive heaved himself off the wall and started to leave. When he noticed Fury wasn't following, he stopped and looked back. "Everything alright?" The look in his soft blue optics said a silent, _besides the fact that you have to be doubly reminded of Starscream every time you look at your sparkling_.

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"That's always the case, ain't it?" he chuckled, waiting for her to catch up with him.

"I've had a lot to think about recently," she muttered, glowering at the floor as they walked down the hall to their respective apartments.

"I understand. Hey," he stopped outside the door to her apartment and put a finger under her chin in order to lift her head so he could look her in the optics. "If you ever need me for anything, I'll be glad to help. Either to talk, to get something for you, to look after her," he nodded to the sparkling, "anything. Alright?"

"Thanks…"

He donned a crooked smile and patted the sparkling on the head before heading into his own home and shutting the door after him.

Anything. He said he be willing to do _anything_…

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><p><strong>AN: **Oh, she's up to something. One guess as to what she's planning. Hint: It involves a berth. Heehee! *wiggles eyebrows* She's as sneaky as Screamer. I hope you all liked it, and you can do me a favor too. I need help, guys. **Give me your thoughts.** Was this chapter flat? Does little Star's behavior seem inconsistent? (Sometimes she's curious about everything, and other times, she understands almost everything and speaks like an adult.) How was Starscream's characterization in the last chapter? **Tell me… **And I don't just want good stuff, either, like I said. Give me your honest thoughts and critiques. There's no way this can get better if I don't get balanced feedback. Give me a nice long review I can read on my trip to visit a college tomorrow!


	7. Falling

**A/N:** Guys, I'm so sorry. I have been so fragging busy lately, what with all the college prep and moving in (finally). This is the first chapter posted from my personal computer in my dorm room with an incredibly uncomfortable desk chair. One of the main complaints of Chapter 6 was that it was a thought chapter. Yes, it was, but it was necessary to set the scene for many more important things to come. This chapter isn't too interesting in my opinion, but it was getting long, so what was originally going to be one chapter is now going to be two. This just basically sets up the scene for the action in the next chapter. And gives you some Overdrive cuteness. XD

I would like to thank all the wonderful reviewers of the last chapter: **PainInUrAft-Nexy,** **KitsuneKeeper **(thank you both especially for giving great critical reviews),** gaarasgrl19, spirit sl, and Starscream's Prime. **

More thanks to the people who faved/alerted the story: **Autobot Fixit, Runaway Deviant, gaarasgrl19, Shades-Soul, spirit sl, Starscream's Prime, i love tfg1 tracks, NarikoKaori, and Darkrai842. **

And thanks again to **PainInUrAft-Nexy **for adding me as a favorite author, as well as **i love tfg1 tracks, and spirit sl.**

Even more thanks to **Starcee57747** and **flyawayohglory **for adding me as an author alert!

Even more more thanks to **spirit sl** who looked through most of this chapter to encourage me that it didn't completely suck. XD

Seriously, guys, it means the world to me. I shows me I'm doing something right. :D

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Transformers.

Details of the market district of Kaon go to **Hearts of Eternity**. The origin of the collapse is my own thoughts.

Read, review, and enjoy, my friends. (Also know the fact that I didn't edit this very well. Let me know about any glaring mistakes.)

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><p>"And you're sure you'll take care of her?"<p>

Overdrive laughed. "Of course I will. I have an orn of fun planned for her. We're going to go to the city center and I'll show her around the market district."

"Be careful…There are so many places for her to fall or get lost or…"

"I be okay," Star assured, patting her femme creator's shoulder. "Starskeem live in city center?"

"No. He lives in a completely different territory."

"Oh. We visit?"

"No. The only time I will tolerate him is when he flies his aft down here. Don't repeat that. Besides, it takes about three orns to get to Iacon. In the fastest shuttle available. And we can't afford that."

Star shrugged. "When he come visit?"

"I don't know." She plucked the sparkling off her shoulder. "Now go with Overdrive and behave yourself. Don't pester him with questions."

The red and black mech shook his head as he took the tiny Seekerlet from Fury. "She's curious. She won't bother me. Honestly."

"You say that now…"

"Seriously. We'll be fine. Ah—" he held up his hand when she opened her mouthplates. "I have the information you gave me, I have the energon, I have the feeding pump, and I know that she needs to come back here for a nap when she gets tired."

"Okay. Okay." Fury looked around the apartment as if searching for anything she'd forgotten. "If you have any questions, call me. If something happens, call me and Lifeline. If I don't answer, then…call Starscream. His number's in the info I gave you. He's an aft, but he's still her mech creator, and would hopefully be able to help if something happens to her…" She huffed through her vents. "But he will be territorial. Don't fritz if he starts posturing."

Overdrive chuckled. "I don't think anything will happen to her. And judging from the way you're acting, I can't think of any reason why you _wouldn't _answer if I called. So I shouldn't have to deal with him."

"Alright. Then I guess I should go before I think of anything else. You're sure—"

"Everything is under control. I won't let her out of my sight. Go."

Fury started for the door, casting one last glance over her shoulder before Star and Overdrive cheerfully waved her out.

Overdrive looked down at the sparkling he held. "Well, what do you want to do first?"

"City center," she chirped, climbing up his arm carefully; like a tiny moth, flaring her wings when she lost her balance.

"Good choice. It's early, and it won't be busy yet. We can explore."

She nodded and trilled.

They left the apartment and emerged on the street. Farther down, Overdrive could see Fury driving toward the outskirts of their section of the city. "Have you ever ridden in anything besides a shuttle?"

"No."

"Alright, then. This will be an adventure."

"What that?" she asked as he placed her gently on the ground beside him.

"An adventure is something you do that's new and exciting and fun…" he checked the traffic and stepped out onto the road, collapsing into his alt mode. "Get in."

"Starskeem have a alt mode," Star informed, climbing slowly into Overdrive's interior.

"Yeah? Did he show you?"

The Seeker fledgling nodded vigorously. "He fly!"

"I've always wondered how that would feel."

"He fast. He do tricks."

"You'll be able to do that once you grow up." Overdrive shut his door once the sparkling was comfortably situated within and merged easily into the light flow of morning traffic. "I think you'll be a wonderful flier. When you learn all sorts of fancy things about flying, you'll have to come back and show me, alright?"

"Okay." She was silent as she watched the buildings and the other drivers pass by in multicolored blurs. "How Starskeem learn to fly?"

"I'd assume his creators taught him. They were both Seekers, so they knew how to fly."

"Who his keeators?"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm sure he'd tell you if you asked. You're related to his creators, you know."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Think about it. They created him, and he and Fury created you."

She pondered that, then nodded in understanding. "So I related to Fury's keeator's too?"

"Yep."

"How far the city center?"

"Maybe a joor and a half."

"That long?"

"Long enough," he answered, merging onto the ramp that would take them to the edges of the looming abyss of the city center. Long enough for him to think. As long as little Star stayed quiet, which wasn't likely to happen for more than a few breems at a time.

Yesterorn, something had changed between he and Fury. He had always been friendly toward her, accepting, understanding. She was wild, he wasn't, she couldn't have enough mechs, he was having trouble handling just his one femme. They weren't that similar. But yesterorn, something had definitely changed. Maybe because their lives became more alike. Events had gotten out of their control. Fury got knocked up with Starscream, and…somewhat consequentially, he and Sunstrike got into a fight and split. Not that it was permanent. It couldn't be. They were compatible enough to have a strong bond. If they actually split, they'd both end up dead.

Fury was the lucky one. She got a sparkling and she ended up still being single after the whole ordeal. He would have loved to have a sparkling. For some reason, Sunstrike wasn't interested. She didn't even really treat him like a mate. She liked to boss him around. If only he'd known what she was really like when they'd met. Things would have been different. Yes, Sunstrike had her moments, but most of the time, she was a controlling glitch. He wanted a relationship with balance. Mutual interests. Affection. He sighed. He wanted someone who was a hopeless romantic like he was.

Fury had never been a femme he thought about pursuing. He still didn't. She was a good neighbor, but not really his type, although he had no doubt she wouldn't have minded being with him. He knew enough to be able to recognize her admiration. She'd never been able to talk to him. Yesterorn in the wash racks…she'd been thinking about _something_, not that he wanted to know exactly what. She liked him as more than a neighbor and a friend, he was sure.

That was the thing. If he didn't think of her as a potential partner, then why had he flirted with her? Why the pit was he acting like he wasn't mated? Maybe his bond with Sunstrike wouldn't last, after all. Why was he so hopeful?

Star's tiny face pressed up against his window brought him back to the present. "What's so interesting out there?" he chuckled.

"Who in those?" she pointed at the towering skyscrapers that rose from the ground around them and soared into the clouds.

"Oh, lots of people. Those are mainly offices, where they work."

"All 'dults?"

He laughed at the pronunciation. "Yes. All adults."

"There more sparklings like me?"

"Yes. If they're not being cared for at home, they'll be at the Youth Center."

"Where that?"

"Well, we don't have one here in Kaon anymore, but there are centers in almost every other territory. The closest ones are in Tyger Pax and Epsilon. Most of the little ones from Kaon go to Tyger Pax's, since they're a nocturnal territory like we are. That way it's easier for them to adjust without having to reset their chronometers."

"Starskeem live in I…con." She crinkled her tiny olfactory sensor, obviously not impressed with her ability to form sounds. Or, rather, her inability.

"That's all the way in the Northern Hemisphere. On a really fast shuttle, it takes about three orns to get there."

"So he fly three orns just to see me and Fury?"

"He does."

"Fury no like him much. They fight."

"I know they do, little one."

"Why they fight?"

"I'm…not sure I should be the one to tell you. She'll explain everything when she thinks she needs to."

"He do something bad?"

"Well…I don't know. It's sensitive, sweetspark."

"But I wanna know…"

"Keep your questions for her, alright?"

"She no like me asking questions."

"She doesn't mind. She just needs time to get used to having you around. She loves you. She really does. And I think Starscream does too."

"I like Starskeem," she chirped thoughtfully. "I no see what so bad with him."

"He's…you know what an ego is?"

"Fury tried explaining…"

"He thinks he's…very important. Sometimes more important than the people around him."

"I 'member."

"He's also stubborn like your femme creator, so they disagree a lot, and don't change their opinions. You getting all this?"

"Mm…think so."

"So, while he may not get along with Fury, I think he cares about you. You are his sparkling, after all."

"What his job?"

"He's head of the Research Core in Iacon. He works directly for the Prime, you know that?"

"What the Prime?"

"The Prime is the ruler of Cybertron. His name is Optimus."

"Starskeem work for him?"

"He sure does."

"My mech keeator's impo-tant," she trilled, more to herself than Overdrive, but he couldn't help laughing.

"I think you'll end up a lot like him. Just don't tell Fury I said that."

"M'kay." She fell silent again and stared out the window.

The traffic had gotten much thicker as they entered the fringes of the more populated industrial city core. Overdrive had made this trip before, but today, the drive required much more concentration. Being able to feel a restless little Seeker sparkling squirming around inside him was distracting. He merged into the far left lane onto a twisting, suspended road that slowly spiraled down toward the outer edges of the giant pit that was Kaon's city center.

Starscream's tiny, sharp fingers on his window drew his attention away from the road. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing. Just looking. Is the city center really down 'stead of up?"

"Uh huh. Just wait. You'll be able to see it in a few breems."

"Why it down? What happen?"

"Well, it was around the same time that the Youth Center burned down, actually. Of course, I wasn't even online at that point. My mech creator told me this story hundreds of times… It was in the middle of the night, when almost everyone was at work. There was a horrible grinding sound and the ground was shaking so hard that buildings were collapsing and cracks were opening up in the streets… Everyone ran outside to see what was going on, and when they looked around, the city center was gone."

"It dis-peared?"

"No. Almost every bot in the territory was trying to get to the city center. The traffic was terrible and the streets were nearly destroyed. What they found was a huge pit, right where the city center used to be. The funny thing was…none of the buildings or streets or anything in the city center had been damaged. It was like the entire pillar had been flipped inside out and upside down.

"But the strangest thing…all the bots that had been there when it happened…gone. Vanished. All that was left were shadows. Thousands of them. But the rescue crews couldn't find a single spark signature. There were occasions when they heard whispering, but every time they got close to where they thought it was coming from, it stopped. It took them cycles to search the whole district, and they couldn't find anyone. It was completely deserted…" He briefly reconfigured his visuals so he could see Star's expression.

The little femme's optics were wide, her wings were raised and tense, and her tiny mouthplates were snapped shut, utterly silent.

He laughed quietly and continued. "Some think that this planet is alive, and that it got restless. Others think Kaon is haunted by the Guardian of Entropy and the sparks of the bots that vanished. Scientists have tried to come up with reasonable explanations for all of it, but they can't figure out the shadows or the whispers or where the bots went or why the buildings stayed intact…"

Silence reigned, and even though the road noise and the din of the traffic around them hadn't changed in any way, it seemed quieter, stiller.

"So they all gone?" Star squeaked, fidgeting and fluttering her wings.

"Gone."

"What the Guardian of Ent…ropy?"

Overdrive chuckled and prepared himself for a long string of questions and storytelling. Not that he minded. He was more than happy to indulge her curiosity and embellish local myths. "The Guardian of Entropy is also called Psi. He's the patron of Kaon. He was created out of the pure disorder of the universe. He's a creature made completely of utter chaos."

"What he look like?" the Seekerlet asked, awe lacing her voice.

"I've heard he changes form constantly. That he's always shifting. Some say he's a liquid shadow that can move through anything. Some think he's just darkness; that he has no form, but I think that's too much like Unicron. Others say he appears to you as the thing you fear the most. But there's always one constant about this ever-changing Guardian. He has bright amber optics. All of the Original Thirteen have amber optics."

"Orig-nal Thirteen?"

"The first of our species. Created by Primus from the matter of the universe itself. Beings with unimaginable powers."

He could feel Star leaning forward eagerly. "Where are they?"

"Nobody knows. They just show up from time to time, influence something going on in the mortal world, then disappear again." He could almost taste the pure excitement that the tiny femme was exuding.

"Fury no like the el-vator at home. She try to hide it from me, but I can feel it. She get nervous in it."

"That elevator is old. Pit, the building itself is ancient. Who knows, maybe it's haunted?" He grinned to himself as he felt the sparkling wriggle eagerly. It was so much fun to play with her like this. Besides, this was probably the most intelligent conversation he'd ever had with a sparkling. She was smart. That made things interesting.

"You think Fury's seen Psi?"

"She could have."

"Maybe he lives in our home-building!" the Seekerlet squealed, sitting up and clapping her little hands together.

This time, he laughed out loud. "He just might—look, look! We're here!"

Suddenly, a gaping chasm had opened up beneath them, so deep they couldn't see the bottom from their vantage point on the suspended roadway. It was almost exactly like Tyger Pax's city center, but going in the opposite direction. Launch pads of all sizes lined the edges of the gargantuan hole, at different levels. A constant stream of aerials kept them in constant use. Shuttles hovered at stops at every level, and tides of pedestrians entered and exited. Twisted buildings rose from the depths and jutted out from various points along the wall. Some were covered in strange graffiti; others had fallen into a state of disrepair; and still others had been completely abandoned altogether, left to the whims of the weather. The diameter of the pit was so wide that they couldn't see the other edge.

"There it is, sweetspark. The grand and mysterious city center of Kaon." Judging from the slight pressure of tiny hands pressed against his window, Overdrive figured it was safe to divert his attention to his driving, since she was busy marveling at everything around her.

The roads around here were dangerous, despite the guardrails. There was at least one fall-related death in this area every cycle. Typically, unfortunately, they were either tourists, or younglings who had just been cleared for reformatting and wanted to try out their new alt modes. In either case, it was tragic. In either case, the victims had families that would be mourning them for the rest of their very long lives. Overdrive was determined to keep himself from being one of those casualties. He stayed in the middle lane, yielding to mergers, being courteous, being safe.

"Where we going?"

"Well, I need to pick up a few things, but after that, we can just explore. How does that sound?"

"Fun."

"You just need to stay in range, alright?"

"What's range?"

"Just…stay where I can see you."

"Okay."

"I promised Fury I would take care of you today."

"I know."

"Alright."

Silence lapsed between them again. Overdrive merged into another exit lane that would take them closer to the marker district, where he needed to be.

"How many bots live here?" Star chirped.

"Oh my…I wouldn't even know how to guess. Hundreds of thousands, at least."

"That a lot?"

"That's a lot. And then there are those who don't live here all the time, but travel here every orn to work."

"You work?"

"I do."

"Does the mean femme work?"

"The mean femme? Who's…oh, Sunstrike? Yeah, she works too."

"Fury say she your mate."

"She…is."

"Fury no have mate."

"She did…" he muttered.

Star sighed. "I want to fly like Starskeem."

"You will. Some orn, you'll fly."

"What this called?"

"What?"

"What you doing."

"Oh. Driving. It's called driving."

"Starskeem drive too?"

"No, he just flies." He wasn't about to mention the disdain the Seeker scientist held for ground-based 'bots. He could feel her readjust.

"How far we have to go?"

"Down?"

"Yeah."

"Mm…about halfway. Market's the top level down there, then the entertainment district, then the industrial district. Warehouses and stuff."

"Where you work?"

"Oh, in one of the buildings on the surface. Typical office job. Not much to it." He sighed. "When you get old enough to have a job, find something that you like, but that will also pay the bills. Not that you know what any of this means."

"Okay," she chirped.

"We're almost to the point where we'll board the lifts to get down. How're you doing?"

"Good."

"Don't need anything?"

"No."

"Alright, then, here we go." He pulled to a stop under a large covered area. "Get out. Unless you want to be crunched." He opened the door she was closest to and waited until he felt her climb out before quickly shifting back to his bipedal form and scooping her up in one hand; laughing when she did. "These lifts are a little like what I think flying would be like."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And they go fast. So hold on tight."

Star nodded solemnly, tiny hands tightening their grip on his shoulder armor.

Together, they made their way to the massive elevator that would lower them into the gaping pit of the city center.

"Why it so big?" the Seekerlet asked, optics wide, voice hushed, almost reverent.

Overdrive laughed. "So it can accommodate large crowds. Thankfully, we're early enough to beat the shuttles. Plus, it's also for cargo." The few passengers waiting looked up as they approached.

"We held it for ya," one of them explained. "Anyone else comin'?"

"Not that I know of."

"Alright then." The door was shut and the switch flipped.

Star's fingers dug into Overdrive's armor so tightly he could feel her rapid sparkbeat through them.

"Is she yours?"

Overdrive shook his head at the light yellow femme inquiring. "My neighbor's. She's out looking for a job and put me in charge of the little brat."

"I not a brat!" Star protested.

"I know, sweetspark. I was teasing."

"She's cute. Part Seeker?"

"Mm, half."

"How old?"

"Almost a quartex."

"That young?"

He nodded, plucking the sparkling from his shoulder and encasing her in his hands. "It'll be a rough landing, little one," he murmured.

Sure enough, a moment later, the elevator lurched to a stop, surprisingly quiet except for a _clang_ as it connected with its supports.

Star peeked hesitantly out of Overdrive's hands. "It done?"

"Yeah, it's done. You ready to go?"

"Yeah..." she tried to climb out of his grasp, grabbing anything she could reach so she wouldn't fall. It was much more difficult because he was walking. Just as she'd gotten both feet firmly planted, he stopped, upsetting the rhythm she'd learned to work with. Not able to find her balance quickly enough, she slipped. She squeaked, falling.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **I know, not the greatest chapter. Inspiration has been lacking. But at least I got it out there. Maybe this will help me get back into the swing of things. As usual, read, review, and spread the love. :D


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